Pending home sales rise to 2007 level

Numbers are up 13.2% from this time last year as the housing market continues its slow but steady pace of recovery.

The number of contracts signed to buy new homes continued to rise in October, up 13.2% compared with the same month a year ago. The National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index reached 104.8, its highest level since March 2007. The index reflects contracts signed to buy homes, not closed sales, but is an indicator of the level of closed sales that can be expected a few months down the road.
The favorable statistics came a day after the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released their October sales data for new homes, showing that the number of contracts was down 0.3% from the previous month but up 17.2% from last October's numbers.

"While this is encouraging, housing’s recovery is being significantly constrained by overly tight mortgage-lending conditions at this time, and policymaker discussions about changes to the mortgage interest deduction could cast a shadow on future housing demand," Barry Rutenberg, National Association of Home Builders chairman and a homebuilder from Gainesville, Fla., said in a news release.

Both the pending home sales and new-home sales numbers seem to indicate that housing is likely to continue its slow but steady recovery. The news that home prices apparently have reached bottom in most cities is drawing some buyers and sellers out of the woodwork.

"We’ve had very good housing-affordabilit

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