Pending Home Sales Decline 1.2% in March 2022

Wednesday Apr 27th, 2022

Share

By: Michael Hyman

NAR released a summary of pending home sales data showing that March’s pending home sales pace decreased 1.2% last month and dropped 8.2% from a year ago.

Bar graph: Pending Home Sales, March 2021 to March 2022

Pending sales represent homes that have a signed contract to purchase them but have yet to close. They tend to lead Existing Home Sales data by 1 to 2 months.

All of the four regions showed declines from a year ago. The South had the largest dip of 9.5% followed by the Northeast with a drop in contract signings of 9.2%. The West fell 8.4% followed by the Midwest with the smallest decline of 4.8%.

Bar graph: U.S. and Regional Pending Sales 2022 and 2021

From last month, three of the four regions showed reductions in contract signings. The Northeast region had the only gain of 4.0%. The Midwest region had the largest dip of 6.1% followed by the South with a decrease of 0.9%. The West had the smallest decline of 0.2%.

The U.S. pending home sales index level for the month was 103.7.

March’s contract signings bring the pending index above the 100-level mark for the 22nd-consecutive month.

Line graph: U.S. and Regional Pending Home Sales Index, January 2019 to March 2022

The 100 level is based on a 2001 benchmark and is consistent with existing-home sales above the 5 million mark.

Post a comment