The Pending Home Sales Index refers to the number of homes that are under contract, but haven’t yet made it to the settlement table. They’re a great predictor of how many sales we can expect to see in the upcoming 90 days.
Pending home sales dipped 1.8% from May (when they were at their highest level in nine years) to June. The experts at the National Association of Realtors are attributing some of the decrease to stiff competition among buyers due to the low inventory of homes for sale. Plus, increasing home prices squeezed some first time buyers out of the market.
While pending home sales decreased in June, it’s important to note that they’ve increased year-over-year for ten consecutive months. This index remains 8.2% above June 2014.