Having dropped 1.9 percent in June, the National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, a seasonally adjusted index for which 100 denotes “an average level” of activity, dropped another 1.8 percent in July to 110.7 and is now down 8.5 percent on a year-over-year basis, a sharp reversal which shouldn’t have caught any plugged-in readers by surprise.
At the same time, listed inventory levels continue to tick up and new home inventory is now up over 26 percent on a year-over-year basis and nearing a 13-year high.
And locally, home buying activity has continued to slow and is poised to drop on a year-over-year basis for the first time in over a year, as we noted last week and with mortgage rates holding near all-time lows.