Glad we could all get together again this Friday...the first day of July !
Well, the figures were just released for Pending Homes Sales, "A forward-looking indicator based on contract signings" (per the National Association of Realtors®, or NAR), and per the NAR, "Pending home sales rose strongly in May with all regions experiencing gains from a year ago, pointing to higher housing activity in the second half of the year". To be exact, the numbers rose 8.2% from April, and 13.4% from May 2010. Was this a surprise, or was it expected...and what does it really mean?
"Of course these figures were expected", says Galen Ward, CEO of Estately.com. Jim Kinney, a Vice President of Luxury Home Sales with Baird Warner says that the uptick in the pending numbers, "was no surprise to us as this is the prime seasonality to see an upturn--no upturn in May would be indeed very glum.". "Mays sales numbers are only representative of the "national market" (if there is such a thing) and we all now that real estate is local", per Greg Cook, a First Time Home Buyer Specialist".
Ward says that the "The First-Time Homebuyer Credit" expired on April 30 of last year, so, "most buyers scrambled to get their offers in prior to May 1.", and Cook says that until we, "move beyond the inflated sales numbers of last years first time home buyer tax credit, we cant really tell if were better or worse year-over-year.", and adds that, "Once we move beyond those numbers (after June) the comparisons become more relevant and we might have a clearer picture of the health of our market."
Ward extends this and adds the following comment; "Saying this year-over-year comparison is a signal of a rebounding market is akin to rewarding yourself for weighing less this May than you did last year when you were nine months pregnant."
What does this mean? Where do we go from here?
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said, “If banks would simply return to normal sound underwriting standards and begin lending to more creditworthy borrowers, we’d get a much faster recovery in the housing sector.”, and cautioned that job creation is critical to a solid recovery, since, "The job market has sputtered recently, and because variations in local job creation impact housing demand, markets will recover unevenly around the country".
What are your thoughts? Is a key piece of the puzzle beyond job creation missing?
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Have a Great Weekend, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes Blog: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com
TAGS: #PendingHomesSales #Realtor #NAR #jobmarket #realestate
