Home sales fall in September; third consecutive month of decline

Dennis Norman

The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for September shows a decrease of 4.6 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 6.4 percent increase from a year ago. This is the third consecutive month the index has decreased from the month before and, and the year over year numbers continue to show decline in the rate of improvement from last year.

Here are highlights from the report for September 2011:

  • The pending home sales index (seasonally adjusted) was 84.5 (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 4.6 percent decrease from the month before and a 6.4 percent increase from a year ago.
  • The”not-seasonally adjusted” index index was 83.2, a 19.1 percent decrease from the month before and a 7.9 percent increase from a year ago.
  • All the regions this month had month over month decreases and year over year increases in home sales activity.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the housing market is being excessively constrained. “A combination of weak consumer confidence and continuing tight lending criteria held back home buyers, even though the private sector added nearly 2 million net new jobs in the past 12 months,” he said.

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