PENDING HOME SALES JUMP

I have been reporting this for a while. Why do they report April numbers in June? May numbers are even better. It was helpful when the market was slowing, but that things are picking up, it is slowing the recovery.
Here in the Metro Phoenix area, our MLS is showing 7,863 single family homes in the Pending status. That is the highest number in over 2 years. If more buyers were aware of this, I believe more buyers would get off the fence. Sales are also at their highest level in 2 years. Our next goal is to get closings to that level. Closings are dragging due to the short sales, they take 4 to 6 months to close.


NAR: US pending home sales move higher in April
AP
Posted: 2008-06-09 15:24:31
NEW YORK (AP) - Pending home sales unexpectedly increased in April to the highest reading since October, an industry group said Monday, but they remain more than 13 percent below a year ago. The National Association of Realtors' seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes rose to 88.2 from a March reading of 83.0, the lowest since the index was started in 2001. The index stood at 101.5 in April 2007. Wall Street economists polled by Thomson/IFR had predicted the index would remain steady at 83. A reading of 100 is equal to the average level of sales activity in 2001. The April index in the West climbed 8.3 percent from March and is 4 percent higher than a year ago. In the Midwest, the index jumped 13 percent, but is still lower than in 2007. The South posted a 4.6 percent gain, while the Northeast index declined 1.9 percent. Read the full article: http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/nar-us-pending-home-sales-move-higher-in/n20080609152409990024