Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Pending Home Sales Report for September showing that pending home sales improved slightly with the seasonally adjusted national index climbing 0.3% since August while increasing 14.5% above the level seen in September 2011.
Meanwhile, the NARs chief economist Lawrence Yun suggests that while recent pending sales activity has been bouncing around the old familiar "narrow range", 2013 should bring a continuation to the overall uptrend:
"Home contract activity remains at an elevated level in contrast with recent years, but currently appears to be bouncing around in a narrow range, ... This means only minor movement is likely in near-term existing-home sales, but with positive underlying market fundamentals they should continue on an uptrend in 2013."
The following chart shows the seasonally adjusted national pending home sales index along with the percent change on a year-over-year basis as well as the percent change from the peak set in 2005 (click for larger version).
