Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Pending Home Sales Report for November showing that pending home sales went flat with the seasonally adjusted national index increasing just 0.2% from October and falling 1.6% below the level seen in November 2012.
Meanwhile, the NARs chief economist Lawrence Yun indicated that while 2013 is ending on a soft note, the year was positive overall and that the slower sales activity seen in the last few months nay just be marking a cyclical low.
"We may have reached a cyclical low because the positive fundamentals of job creation and household formation are likely to foster a fairly stable level of contract activity in 2014 ... Although the final months of 2013 are finishing on a soft note, the year as a whole will end with the best sales total in seven years."
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).
