The National
Association of Realtors (NAR) announced on Monday its seasonally adjusted
pending home sales index (PHSI) jumped by 2.2 per cent m-o-m to 79.0 in
November, following a downwardly revised 1.8 per cent m-o-m gain (from -2.0 per cent
m-o-m) in October. This
represented the fourth straight
monthly increase in pending home sales.
Economists had forecast
pending home sales to rise by 0.7 per cent m-o-m in November.
On a y-o-y
basis, the index surged 6.9 per cent after an unrevised 5.4 per cent climb in October. This marked the strongest annual advance since May
2021 (+13.6 per cent).
According to the
report, three of the four U.S. regions - the South (+5.2 per cent m-o-m), West (+0.5 per cent m-o-m), and Midwest (+0.4 per cent m-o-m) - posted monthly gains in pending home sales operations, while the Northeast (-1.3 per cent m-o-m) recorded a
decrease.
In y-o-y terms,
all four U.S. regions also registered advances, led by the West (+11.8 per cent
y-o-y).
Commenting on the latest report, Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist,
noted that consumers appeared to have recalibrated expectations regarding
mortgage rates and are taking advantage of more available inventory. "Buyers
are no longer waiting for or expecting mortgage rates to fall substantially," he
added. "Furthermore, buyers are in a better position to negotiate as the market
shifts away from a seller’s market."