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Pending home sales fall 2.6% in June

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Home purchase contracts dipped 2.6% from May to June as fewer shoppers appeared to be in the market after expiration of federal tax incentives for buyers.

The National Assn. of Realtors’ pending home-sales index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed for previously owned homes, fell to a level of 75.7 in June from an upwardly revised 77.7 level in May, the group said Tuesday.

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The index stood at 93.0 in June 2009.

“There could be a couple of additional months of slow home-sales activity before picking up later in the year, provided the job market continues to improve,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the organization, said in a statement.

An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, which was both the first year that the group began tracking the data as well as the first of five straight years of record increases for sales of previously owned homes.

The declines follow the expiration April 30 of a federal tax credit of up to $8,000 for certain buyers that had been fueling sales during the spring.

-- Alejandro Lazo

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