Although pending home sales fell 2.8% compared with December, they reached an all-time in January high on the National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales Index, climbing to a level of 122.8.
A level above 100 on the index is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001, according to NAR. Compared with January 2020, pending home sales were up 13.0%.
“Pending home sales fell in January because there are simply not enough homes to match the demand on the market,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement. “That said, there has been an increase in permits and requests to build new homes.”
Regionally, compared with January 2020, pending home sales were up 9.6% in the Northeast, 8.6% in the Midwest, 17.1% in the South and 11.5% in the West.
The full NAR report can be found here.
