Pending Home Sales Up (For the Sixth Month in a Row)

• September 1st 2009

by Will Smith

The National Association of Realtors today announced that pending home sales are up for the sixth month in a row. There hasn’t been such a streak since NAR started measuring pending home sales in 2001. (The pending sales index measures homes that have gone under contract but not yet closed and so can’t be considered sold. It is a leading indicator of actual sales activity.)

Today’s news is the latest in a steady stream of positive signs that the national housing market has hit bottom. It is welcome news to be sure, but there remain plenty of bearish market watchers who urge caution. They point to the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit, which has done a lot to spur sales. When the credit expires later this year, argue the bears, it will take the wind out of the housing market’s tenuous sails. Almost everyone agrees that there will indeed be a dip in activity when the credit expires; the question is, how deep and how long will the dip be?

According to NAR estimates, there will be 350,000 homes sales in 2009 as a result of the credit. That’s an 18 percent addition to the 1.8 to 2 million first-time sales that would have occurred otherwise.

NAR and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) are both lobbying for the tax credit to be extended through 2010 as well as expanded beyond first-time buyers to include everyone.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/pending_home_sales_up_for_the_sixth_month_in_a_row/1271.