Pending Home Sales Drop By One-Third In Midwest But St Louis Faring Better

The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) just released its pending home sales report for October 2022 which revealed pending home sales in the U.S. were down 37% from October 2021. The Northeast market had the smallest decline in year-over-year pending home sales with a decline of 29.5% followed by the Midwest with a decline of 32.1%, the South with a decline of 38.2%.  The west region of the U.S. saw the biggest decline in pending home sales with a decline of 46.2% from October 2021 to October 2022.

The St Louis market is performing better…

While the NAR does not publish pending home sales data for St Louis, MORE, REALTORS has its exclusive STL Real Estate Trends Report.  This report shows new contracts accepted during a period so, since a pending home sale starts with a contract being accepted, this gives us a very similar caparison.  As the table below shows, New Contracts in the St Louis 5-County Core Market for October 2022 were down 24% from October 2021. This is a significantly smaller decline in sales than reported at the national level (37%) or even for the Midwest (32.1%).

St Louis 5-County Core Market – New Contracts October 2022 vs October 2021

St Louis 5-County Core Market - New Contracts October 2022 vs October 2021

Pending Home Sales Increase In Midwest Region In April…down in all other regions

The pending home sales index from the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) was released showing the midwest region as the only region that had an increase from March to April.  According to the NAR report below, the pending home sales index for the midwest increased 6.6% from March to April while declining 3.9% for the nation as a whole.  As the table below shows, all while all four regions in the U.S. saw a decline in the pending home sales index from a year ago, the midwest fared the best again showing only a 2.8% decline while the other regions all saw a double-digit decline.

National Association of REALTORS®

Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)

National Association of REALTORS®  Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)