The National Association of REALTORS released it’s Pending Home Sales Index for May today showing an increase of 5.9 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), a 13.3 percent increase from a year ago and is now at the highest level it’s been since April 2010.
Highlights from the report for May, 2012:
- The pending home sales index (seasonally adjusted) was 101.1 (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 5.9 percent increase from the month before and a 123.3 percent increase from a year ago.
- The”not-seasonally adjusted” index index was 118.5 a 5.5 percent increase from the month before and a 15.3 percent increase from a year ago.
- All regions had month-over-month increases with the West region leading the way and all regions also saw year-over-year increases with the Midwest region out front with a 22.1 percent gain and the Northeast just slightly behind with a 19.8 percent increase.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist,said longer term comparisons are more relevant. “The housing market is clearly superior this year compared with the past four years. The latest increase in home contract signings marks 13 consecutive months of year-over-year gains,” he said. “Actual closings for existing-home sales have been notably higher since the beginning of the year and we’re on track to see a 9 to 10 percent improvement in total sales for 2012.”
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