Monday, December 30, 2013

Pending Home Sales: November 2013

Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Pending Home Sales Report for November showing that pending home sales went flat with the seasonally adjusted national index increasing just 0.2% from October and falling 1.6% below the level seen in November 2012.

Meanwhile, the NARs chief economist Lawrence Yun indicated that while 2013 is ending on a soft note, the year was positive overall and that the slower sales activity seen in the last few months nay just be marking a cyclical low.

"We may have reached a cyclical low because the positive fundamentals of job creation and household formation are likely to foster a fairly stable level of contract activity in 2014 ... Although the final months of 2013 are finishing on a soft note, the year as a whole will end with the best sales total in seven years."

The following chart shows the seasonally adjusted national pending home sales index along with the percent change on a year-over-year basis as well as the percent change from the peak set in 2005 (click for larger version).