Pending Home Sales Unexpectedly Rise in February

Pending home sales kept the positive streak alive with an unexpected increase in February, according to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors.

• M-O-M: The Pending Home Sales Index increased to 83.2 in February, up 0.8% from last month and the highest level since August 2021. Reminder, an index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001.

• Y-O-Y: Pending transactions fell 21.1% when compared to the same time last year.

Swing & A Miss. Economists projected that pending sales would fall 2.3%.

South On Top. While the South didn’t see a big jump in February, the index is the highest at 99.3, up 0.7% from January but still down 21.7% from February 2022.

• The Midwest index increased 0.4% to 84.9, down 16.5% from last year. The Northeast saw the biggest jump with a 6.5% increase to an index of 72.5, down 17% from last year.

• The West was the only region that fell with a 2.4% decline to an index of 64.6, down 28.4% from one year ago.

Analysis. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, notes that the housing recovery s upon us and being led by two main regions. “After nearly a year, the housing sector’s contraction is coming to an end…Existing-home sales, pending contracts and new-home construction pending contracts have turned the corner and climbed for the past three months…The affordable U.S. regions – the Midwest and South – are leading the recovery,”