Pending Sales Rout May Signal a Bounce for Housing – Realtors; All-Time Low Rates Already in Rearview

Pending Sales Rout May Signal a Bounce for Housing – Realtors; All-Time Low Rates Already in Rearview

Pending home sales cratered again in April, marking two straight months of declines that exceeded 20 percent. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said its Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) fell 21.8 percent to 69.0. The decline in March was 20.8 percent. The Index is down by 33.8 percent year-over-year. This is the largest decline in pending home sales number since NAR began tracking the transactions in January 2001. Every major region experienced a drop in both month-over-month and year-over-year pending home sales transactions. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said he expects that April will be the lowest point for pending sales and subsequently May will mark the bottom for closed sales of existing homes. The April results were even worse than analysts had expected. Those polled