The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is reporting that pending home sales declined in May by 3.7% (year over year), the first decline in nearly two years. The blame? Low inventory. The data was released as part of the NAR’s Pending Home Sale Index (PHS) which measures housing contract activity, and is based on signed real estate contracts for existing single-family homes, condos and co-ops. The PHS generally leads existing home sales by one to two months.
“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 and to keep prices more in line with inflation and wage growth,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.
