On Wednesday, March 31 at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) will release its Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) for February 2021. The PHSI analyzes data on homes where the contract is signed, but not yet closed and is based on signed real estate contracts for existing single-family homes, condos, and co-ops. NAR’s PHSI is a key indicator of trends in the market.
NAR’s PHSI dropped 2.8% to 122.8 in January, and year-over-year, contract signings rose 13%. An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001.
"Pending home sales fell in January because there are simply not enough homes to match the demand on the market," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's Chief Economist. "That said, there has been an increase in permits and requests to build new homes."
As outlined by Yun, tight inventory resulted in a drop in sales, thus setting the table for heated bidding wars nationwide.
Regionally, the Northeast PHSI fell 7.4% to 101.6 in January; in the Midwest, the Index declined 0.9% to 113.2 last month; in the South, inched up 0.1% to an index of 151.3; and in the West, dropped 7.8% in January 2021, to 104.6.
Here's what else is happening in The Week Ahead:
- MBA Forbearance and Call Volume Survey (Monday)
- DS News Webinar: The Forbearance Factor—Upcoming Mortgage Servicing Challenges (Wednesday)
- NAR Pending Home Sales Index (Wednesday)
- MBA Weekly Applications Survey (Wednesday)
- Realtor.com Weekly Housing Market Recap (Wednesday)
- Realtor.com’s Housing Market Recovery Index (Thursday)
- Realtor.com’s Weekly Housing Trends View (Thursday)
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (Thursday)
- Black Knight weekly forbearance data (Friday)