Pending home sales data for August was just released by the National Association of Realtors. According to the Pending Home Sales Index, “contracts signed in August, rose 4.3 percent to a level of 110.1 from a reading of 105.6 in July, but is 14.1 percent lower than August 2005.”

David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said that the over supply of homes for sale in the US should be drawn down as the inventory of new homes coming on the market slows.

Just to clarify - homes are considered pending once entered into contract, and stay pending until the sale is closed. Pending home sales is often used to measure the health of the housing market.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or sign up for our real estate social network. Thanks for visiting!

Tags: association, home, housing, index, NAR, national, of, pending, Realtors, sales

The National Association of Realtors today reported that the median home price in the US fell in August to $225,000 down 1.7% from August of 2005. This is the first time a year over year decline in median home prices has occured since April 1995.

According to The New York Times: “David Lereah, chief economist of the association, said he expects prices to continue to fall. “We do expect an adjustment in home prices to last several months, as we work through a buildup in the inventory of homes on the market,” he said in a written statement. “This is the price correction we’ve been expecting — with sales stabilizing, we should go back to positive price growth early next year.”

At the end of August, there were enough unsold, previously owned homes on the market that it would take 7½ months to sell them all at the current sales pace. The association said that was a bigger backlog than at any time since April 1993.”

Hear that? That quiet hissing sound you’re hearing seems like the beginning of a deflating bubble . . .

Tags: association, bubble, home, median, national, prices, Realtors