Visualizing The Modest Bump In Pending Home Sales Data

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its Pending Home Sale Index for July 2015, suggesting an increase in pending home sale activity from the previous month.

Data from FindTheHome shows that the index value for pending home sales was 110.948 in July, which represents a 0.5 percent increase from the 110.369 index value reported last month. The pending home sale index reached as high as 112.3 in May 2015.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun explains the modest rebound in contract activity, concluding that "while demand and sales continue to be stronger than earlier this year, Realtors have reported since the spring that available listings in affordable price ranges remain elusive for some buyers trying to reach the market and are likely holding back sales from being more robust."

The Pending Home Sales Index is a real estate indicator based on the number of pending sales of existing homes. A pending sale usually means that there is an agreement between the buyer and seller, but the transaction is not yet finalized. The number of pending sale contracts recorded by NAR determines the index value for that month. For reference, an index value of 100 is equal to the pending sale contract activity in 2001, the first year that this index was published.

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