The National Association of REALTORS released it’s Pending Home Sales Index for February today showing home sales in the Midwest increased 6.5 percent from the month before and were up 19.0 percent from a year ago. This is in sharp contrast to home sales on a national level which saw a slight decrease of 0.5 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and an 9.2 percent increase from a year ago.
Highlights from the report for February, 2012:
- The pending home sales index (seasonally adjusted) was 96.5 (the index is based upon 100.0 being equal to the average level of sales activity in 2001 which we could call the last “normal” year) which is a 0.5 percent decrease from the month before and an 9.2 percent increase from a year ago.
- The”not-seasonally adjusted” index index was 90.0 a 15.1 percent increase from the month before and a 13.9 percent increase from a year ago.
- The Midwest was the only region with a month-over-month increase (6.5 percent) and all regions, except the West, had a year-over-year increase.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said we’re seeing the continuation of an uneven but higher sales pattern. “The spring home buying season looks bright because of an elevated level of contract offers so far this year,” he said. “If activity is sustained near present levels, existing-home sales will see their best performance in five years. Based on all of the factors in the current market, that’s what we’re expecting with sales rising 7 to 10 percent in 2012.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.