While still above average, the National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, for which 100 denotes an average level of activity, was teetering on the edge of a year-over-year decline in June. And having slipped 0.8 percent to 109.1 in July, the index is now running 1.3 percent lower versus the same time last year.
In the West, the index inched up 0.6 percent in July to a slightly above average 102.3 but is now running 4.0 percent lower versus the same time last year and versus 5.0 percent higher on a year-over-year basis at the end of 2016.