By RISMedia Staff
The recent flare-up in COVID cases hasn’t slowed the U.S. housing markets, according to the latest Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) from the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). For June, pending home sales increased 16.6 percent, marking the second consecutive month of increasing contract activity. The index is now at 116.1 on a national level—according to NAR, an index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001.
All four major regions saw month-over-month growth in June. The Northeast, however, was the only region to not record YoY increases in pending transactions.
NAR revised its forecast for the remainder of 2020, expecting existing-home sales to decline by only 3 percent, with sales increasing to 5.6 million by the fourth quarter. In addition, NAR expects a positive GDP growth of 4 percent in 2021, which could help boost existing and new-home sales, forecasted to grow by 7 and 16 percent, respectively. In terms of mortgage interest rates, NAR predicts they will stay near 3 percent over the next 18 months, while home prices are forecast to increase by 4 percent in 2020 before moderating to 3 percent in 2021 with the addition of new supply.
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