Pending Home Sales Preview: Estimates Call For Slight Increase

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) will release the June Pending Home Sales Index at 10:00 a.m. ET, with consensus looking for a 1 percent increase, according to Bloomberg News. Estimates range from 0.4 percent to 2.5 percent. This month's consensus estimate of 1.0 percent is just slightly higher than last month's reading of 0.9 percent.

Pending home sales rose in May for the fourth consecutive month and reached their highest level in nine years, according to the NAR.

The NAR created the Pending Home Sales Index to be a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing, as defined on the NAR website (www.realtor.org).

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said that home sales are off to their best year since the downturn. "The steady pace of solid job creation seen now for over a year has given the housing market a boost this spring. It's very encouraging to now see a broad based recovery with all four major regions showing solid gains from a year ago and new home sales also coming alive."