Pending Home Sales Declined this Fall

Pending home sales in August slowed, according to RISMedia.  The sparseness of home inventory, paired with rising interest rates and home prices can be the prime suspects, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) states.

The chief economist of NAR, Lawrence Yun, stated that this was an anticipated decline, especially following the increased levels of sales of existing homes at the end of this summer.

"Sharply rising mortgage interest rates in the spring motivated buyers to make purchase decisions, culminating in a six-and-a-half-year peak for sales that were finalized last month. Moving forward, we expect lower levels of existing-home sales, but tight inventory in many markets will continue to push up home prices in the months ahead."

In the Midwest, we saw a decline of 1.4% from 111.6 in August.  This is, however, 13.8% higher than we found this number last August.