TAMPA, Fla. — The National Association of Realtors said pending home sales marked a third consecutive month of gains as of February.
“After nearly a year, the housing sector’s contraction is coming to an end,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “Existing-home sales, pending contracts, and new-home construction pending contracts have turned the corner and climbed for the past three months.”
According to the NAR, pending home sales improved by 0.8% in February. While that was a third straight month of gains, when looking at the data year-over-year, pending home sales dropped by 21.1%.
In February, pending home sales improved the most in the northeast, up 6.5%, but still down 17 percent from last year. In the South, pending home sales grew just 0.7% in February but year-over-year dropped 21.7%.
The Midwest region had the smallest increase of just 0.4% in February but was down 16.5% from a year ago.
Finally, western states saw pending home sales drop 2.4% in February and were down nearly 30% from the same time in 2022.
