Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, NAR
By: Dennis Norman
Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) issued their Pending Home Sales Index Report for July showing pending sales in the U.S. were up for the sixth consecutive month, the best streak since NAR began the pending home sale index in 2001.
Pending home sales in the U.S. for July showed a 3.2 percent increase from June and a healthy 12.0 percent increase from July 2008. The four regions were split with the West and South showing monthly increases of 12.1 percent and 3.1 percent respectively and the Midwest and the Northeast showing monthly declines of 2.0 percent and 3.0 percent respectively. However, all four regions saw an increased in pending home sales for July from a year ago. The west was up a whopping 20.0 percent from July 2008, the South up 12.0 percent, Midwest up 8.1 percent and the Northeast up 4.7 percent.
Houses affordability remains very high with existing homes in the U.S. selling for a median price of $178,300 and the median income buyer’s cost of housing being 15.8 percent of their monthly income.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the housing market momentum has clearly turned for the better. “The recovery is broad-based across many parts of the county. Housing affordability has been at record highs this year with the added stimulus of a first time buyer tax credit,” he said.
As the sales numbers and other housing reports keep showing signs of encouragement there is more and more talk that we have seen the bottom and even of a recovery being in progress. At the same time, however, there are plenty of qualified opinions that are calling this a false bottom and cautioning that mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates are going to drag the market back down. Only time will tell, but in the meantime it’s nice to see some good news about the real estate market.
Below is an interview with Lawrence Yun by REALTOR(R) Magazine.
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