Highest Home-Buying Demand in Years Stifled by Tight Inventory

Posted To: MND NewsWire

Tight inventories are again being blamed for a downturn in home sales, this time January's ones. The National Association of Realtor's® (NAR's) Pending Home Sale Index (PHSI) declined by 2.8 percent from December, reaching the lowest level in a year. The PHSI is a forward-looking indicator based on signed contracts for home purchases. Those contracts are generally expected to turn into completed sales in about 60 days. The January PHSI dipped to 106.4 from an upwardly revised 109.5 in December. The December index had originally been reported at 109.0. The index remains 0.4 percent higher than it was in January 2016, but is at the lowest level since then. This index is beginning to exhibit the same kind of volatility that has marked new home sales in recent months. The index gained 1.6 percent...(read more)

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