NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun was optimistic about the increase in sales.
“After nearly a year, the housing sector’s contraction is coming to an end,” he said. “Existing-home sales, pending contracts and new-home construction pending contracts have turned the corner and climbed for the past three months.”
Existing home sales increased for the first time in a year, jumping to a six-month high of 4.58 million in February. New single-family home sales during the month also bounced back 1.1% to 640,000 from a revised downward reading of 633,000, according to the Census Bureau’s latest report.
Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan commented: “While housing writ large has responded to the Fed’s monetary tightening in a relatively predictable fashion, the rapid uptick in home sales in response to modest rate declines earlier this year corroborates our long-standing expectation that the housing sector will help moderate any future recession due to the significant pent-up demand.”
Pending home sales regional breakdown
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