Pending home sales spike amid rising inventory, moderating prices
Pending home sales rose for the first time in 3 months
Will rising interest rates cool housing market?
Macro Trends Advisors founding partner Mitch Roschelle provides insight into the housing market.
Pending home sales snapped back in August, following two months of declines, as the housing market showed signs of regaining its footing.
The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings, rose 8.1% last month to 119.5, according to the National Association of Realtors. A score of 100 is equivalent to the level of contract activity in 2001.
Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting pending home sales to rise 1.4% after falling a downwardly revised 2% in July.
Contracts signed were down 8.3% year over year.
"Rising inventory and moderating price conditions are bringing buyers back to the market," said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. "Affordability, however, remains challenging as home price gains are roughly three times wage growth."
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Signings rose across all regions with the Midwest seeing the largest increase, climbing 10.4% last month. Transactions jumped 8.6% in the South, 7.2% in the West and 4.6% in the Northeast.