Having dropped 2.5 percent in November to its second lowest level of the year, the National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, for which 100 denotes an average level of activity, inched up 1.6 percent in December and ended the year at 109.0.
The seasonally adjusted index is now running 0.3 percent higher on a year-over-year basis, having dropped 5.0 percent over the past nine months from a reading of 115.0 in April, which was a ten-year high.
In the West, the Pending Home Sales Index rebounded 5.0 percent in December, following a 6.7 percent drop the month before, and now measures 106.1 which is 5.0 percent higher versus the same time last year versus a year-over-year drop of 1.0 percent the month before.