August Pending Home Sales -2.0% Vs -1.5% Est, Prior -0.6% Revised (Was -1.0%).
Pending home sales fell by 2% in August, below the 1.5% decrease expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg and following a 0.6% decrease in July, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The monthly sales index was down 24% from August 2021.
Pending home sales fell in three of the four regions of the country from July and were down in all four regions compared with a year earlier.
US Pending Home Sales Index tracks the transactions of home sale contracts not yet completed in the US, where an index of 100 was considered average contract activity in 2001. Since pending home sales would tend to become existing home sales in a few months, the pending home sales index can be used as a leading indicator for housing market activity in the US. Historically, the US Pending Home Sales Index troughed in the aftermath of the US Housing Crisis.