Stillwind Home for Sale in SW Gainesville (Photo credit: ChrisBohn)

Existing Home Sales Rise July 2013

A National Association of Realtors (NAR) report released yesterday (21st August, 2013) says that existing home sales rose up to 6.5% in the month of July, a clear indication that housing recovers to its highest level in nearly 4 years.

According to the association, homes/houses sold at a 5.39 million seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), surprisingly surpassing the forecast of economists which stood at a 1.15 million sales space. The latest existing home sales rate was up 17.1% from the same month in 2012 and the highest since November, 2009. 

Logo of the National Association of Realtors. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pending Home Sales

The National Association of Realtors recently announced that the Pending Home Sales Index for the month of February dropped to 104.8 points. This translates a 0.4 percent drop from the January sales index. However, the NAR emphasized that this is not an indication that the recovery of the housing market is stalling. This index is based on the number of contracts to buy pre-owned homes in the US. While the number of contracts might have reduced, the Pending Home Sales Index for the month of February is still at the second highest level in more than three years.