Lawrence Yun, NAR senior economist, stressed that housing activity continues to be impacted by tighter lending criteria and a lack of buyer confidence. "Some transactions are being postponed from mortgage market disruptions," he said. "But better supervised lending will put housing in a fundamentally healthier state over the long term. "Mortgage purchase applications are trending up, with some of the rise due to buyers reapplying for alternatives to subprime financing. Nonetheless, home sales should stay close to present levels in the months ahead given an accumulating pent-up demand," Yun said.
The pent-up demand results from slow household formation, which is significantly below levels that would be expected in a period of job creation and economic growth. "As consumer confidence improves, home sales will rise," he said. The index is a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing.
An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, which was the first year to be examined as well as the first of five consecutive record years for existing-home sales. Annual changes in the index are more closely related to actual market performance than are month-to-month comparisons. As the relatively new index matures and seasonal adjustment factors are refined, the month-to-month comparisons will become more meaningful.
The PHSI in the West rose 5.6 percent in May to 95.4 but was 13.7 percent below a year ago. In the Northeast, the index increased 3.8 percent from April to 93.1 but is 9.6 percent lower than May 2006. The index in the South fell 7.6 percent in May to 107.2 and was 15.4 percent below a year ago. In the Midwest, the index dropped 8.9 percent in May to 89.4 and was 11.7 percent below May 2006.
