NAR reports Pending Home Sales Index down 1.9%
April 8, 2008
The NAR has reported that the Pending Home Sales Index is showing a decline of 1.9%. The Index looks at pending contracts signed in February. This is a good indicator of the amount of homes that would have sold in March. The Index was 84.6 down from 86.2 in January.
The chief economist, Lawrence Yun, believes that “we’re looking for essentially stable sales in the near term, before higher mortgage loan limits translate into more sales in high-cost markets. The wide access to affordable credit should increase sales activity notable this summer as pent-up demand begins to be met.”
The NAR’s report also predicts Existing Home Sales to be weak in 08 [5.39M], but improve 6.6% [5.74M] in 2009. They continue predicting New Home Sales to decline 25.7% [576,000] in 08 and pick up 4.6% [602,000] in 2009. The NAR’s mortgage rates predictions are for 30 fixed to average 5.8% Q2 and Q3 08 Read more
St. Louis Real Estate Blog
April 5, 2008
Buy StL Today with St. Louis best Free MLS Access and Real Estate Blog.
