After falling 1.7% in October, pending home sales increased 1.2% on an adjusted basis in November, month-over-month, resulting in a score of 108.5 on the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index.
Year-over-year, pending home sales were up 7.4%.
Regionally, and month-over-month, pending home sales increased 5.5% in the West and 1.0% in the Midwest. However, they decreased 0.2% in the South and 0.1% in the Northeast.
Pending home sales were up in all four regions on a year-over-year basis.
“Despite the insufficient level of inventory, pending home contracts still increased in November,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for NAR, in a statement. “The favorable conditions are expected throughout 2020 as well, but supply is not yet meeting the healthy demand.”
At the recent NAR Real Estate Forecast Summit, the consensus forecast called for 2.0% GDP growth, a 3.7% unemployment rate and a 3.8% average mortgage rate in 2020.
Home prices were projected to rise by 3.6% in 2020 after a 5% gain in 2019.
“Sale prices continue to rise, but I am hopeful that we will see price appreciation slow in 2020,” Yun says. “Builder confidence levels are high, so we just need housing supply to match and more home construction to take place in the coming year.”