On the heels of yesterday's announcement that the Case Shiller home-price index rose for the first time in eight months comes another bit of good news. This time it's an uptick in pending home sales. Is it just a blip, or the beginning of a housing-market turnaround? HousingWire has the full story. Pending home sales rose 8.2 percent in May after experiencing a downturn in April, with contract activity rising above year-ago levels for the first time since April 2010, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.
The huge trade association, which has more than 1.2 million members, said that its pending home sales index, which is based on the number of contracts signed to purchase previously owned homes, rose to 88.8 in May, 13.4 percent higher than 78.3 a year earlier and up from 82.1 in April.
"Absorption of inventory is the key to price improvement, and this solid gain in contract signings implies that home values in many localities are or will soon be stabilizing as inventories get absorbed at a faster pace," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said.
See HousingWire for the full story.
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