Time to Put Your House on the Market?

Last week, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings. May’s numbers weren’t quite as good as May 2015:

“With last month’s decline, the index reading is still the third highest in the past year, but declined year-over-year for the first time since August 2014.”

Mainstream media ran headlines highlighting the index had dropped for the first time in two years. Many concluded the housing market must be slowing down.

If you were thinking of selling your home, these reports may have caused you some concern. Let’s take a closer look to see if your concern is justified.

Below is a graph of the index since January 2014. We can see the index has increased every month over the last 18 months, leading up to May 2016:

Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at NAR, explained it was a lack of housing inventory that caused the index to slip, NOT a pullback in the market:

“Total housing inventory at the end of each month has remarkably decreased year-over-year now for an entire year. There are simply not enough homes coming onto the market to catch up with demand.”

This illustrates what Yun was referencing:

Real Estate Bottom Line

Did the latest numbers from the Pending Home Sales Index cause you to re-think selling your home at this time? If anything, the exact opposite may be true.  Now may be the perfect time to sell.  Let’s talk to discuss your particular situation.