Having already dropped over 20 percent in March, the National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, a seasonally adjusted index for which 100 denotes “an average level” of activity, dropped another 21.8 percent in April to 69.0 and is now running 33.8 percent its mark at the same time last year (and 38.6 percent below its cyclical high of 112.3 which was recorded in early 2017).
Out West, the index dropped another 20.0 percent in April to 57.1 and is now running 37.2 percent below its mark at the same time last year.
As noted by NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, last month, “a bounce-back later in the year will be insufficient to make up for the loss of sales in the second quarter,” which is usually the big Spring buying season. And as such, NAR is now forecasting that home sales will end the year down 11 percent versus 2019.
And as we noted earlier this week, while home buying activity has started to rebound in San Francisco, pending home sales are still down around 30 percent across the city.