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Bloomberg News / Landov
Numbers: The pending home sales index jumped 3.8% in March, the National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Econoday had forecast a monthly increase of 0.7%.
What happened: The pending home sales index, which follows the signing of housing contracts, has been volatile in recent months, but the housing trend has generally been down. The month of March marked the 15th consecutive month of annual decline in the pending sales index, which has declined 1.2% over the past 12 months.
Also on Tuesday, the Case-Shiller index, widely followed, indicated that housing prices had risen at their slowest pace since mid-2012 in February.
In March, only the Northeast region saw a drop of 1.7%. Pending home sales rose 4.4% in the south, 2.3% in the Midwest and 8.7% in the west, in a sector characterized by higher prices and recent changes. tax legislation.
See also: Sell your house with a real estate agent or algorithm? Maybe both.
Big picture: The signing of contracts generally precedes the closing of approximately 45 days. The pending home sales index is therefore a leading indicator for future reports on existing home sales. Realtors expect that existing home sales will be down 1.1% in 2019 compared to last year. All eyes are on the busy spring sales season to see if things go wrong.
What they say: "There is pent-up demand in the market and we should see a stronger market in the coming quarters and years," said Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist of NAR.
Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA, -0.10%
opened earlier Tuesday as investors weighed profits.
Related: Forget everything you've heard about first time homebuyers. They are fine.
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