IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Pending home sales nationwide slipped during June, breaking a streak of five months of increases.
The Pending Home Sales Index was 110.3 in June, down 1.8 percent from May but still 8.2 percent above June 2014, according to data released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors in Chicago.
Despite that drop, the June index was the third-highest of this year, and the 10th straight month the index has been up year-over-year, the association stated.
Pending sales are sales in which a contract has been signed but the transaction is not yet official. Members of the housing industry consider them an accurate indicator of the housing market’s short-term future.
Competition for single-family homes remained strong all across the country last month, and in some markets not enough inventory raised prices above what some people could afford, said Lawrence Yun, the association’s chief economist.
“The demand is there for more sales, but the determining factor will be whether or not some of these buyers decide to hold even longer until supply improves and price-growth slows,” Yun said in a statement.
Pending home sales are staying up despite an influx of first-time buyers, Yun noted.
The average median home price is expected to increase about 6.5 percent this year, to nearly $220,000. That would match the record high for median prices set in 2006, the association stated.
