Rising real estate stats
For a second month in a row, National Association of Realtors data reveals that pending home sales (contracts signed) beat expectations in March, rising 5.1% after a 2.1% rise in February.
New home sales have dropped 22% from last March and home prices have double dipped making the news of rising pending home sales welcome news as pending home sales rising is a forecasting tool for upcoming closing volume.
Projected 2011 rise
NAR’s Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun said, “Based on the current uptrend with very favorable affordability conditions, rising apartment rents and ongoing job creation, existing-home sales should rise around 5 to 10 percent this year with sales growth of lower priced homes likely to outperform high-end homes. That means the price trend will reflect more homes sold in the lower price ranges.”
This sunny projection seems conservative yet realistic based on current trends.
The South and the North
The South region rose 10.3% while the Northeast dropped 3.2% in pending home sales. The bad news is that although the pendulum is swinging back up, pending home sales are down 11.4% from March 2010.
