{"id":1287,"date":"2025-07-01T07:55:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T07:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/pending-home-sales-data-scores-some-points-but-not-enough-to-change-the-game\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T07:55:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T07:55:01","slug":"pending-home-sales-data-scores-some-points-but-not-enough-to-change-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/pending-home-sales-data-scores-some-points-but-not-enough-to-change-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Pending Home Sales Data Scores Some Points, But Not Enough to Change The Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<p data-start=\"294\" data-end=\"652\">The National Association of Realtors&#8217; Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)\u2014which tracks contract signings on existing homes\u2014has remained rangebound for more than two years, constrained by affordability pressures and elevated mortgage rates. This week\u2019s update showed a modest improvement, but the broader story hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"654\" data-end=\"863\">Pending home sales rose by <strong data-start=\"679\" data-end=\"687\">1.8%<\/strong> in May, marking the first increase since February. The index is now <strong data-start=\"832\" data-end=\"862\">1.1% higher than a year ago<\/strong>, but still well below pre-2022 norms.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"865\" data-end=\"1106\">Zooming out, contract activity remains stuck in a narrow band. The index hasn\u2019t been above 80 since the summer of 2022 and continues to reflect a sluggish, rate-constrained housing market.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"865\" data-end=\"1106\"><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"865\" data-end=\"1106\">\u201cConsistent job gains and rising wages are modestly helping the housing market,\u201d said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. \u201cHourly wages are increasing faster than home prices. However, mortgage rate fluctuations are the primary driver of homebuying decisions and impact housing affordability more than wage gains.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1481\" data-end=\"1541\">Here\u2019s how the month-over-month change broke down by region:<\/p>\n<ul data-start=\"1543\" data-end=\"1639\">&#13;<\/p>\n<li data-start=\"1543\" data-end=\"1567\">&#13;\n<p data-start=\"1545\" data-end=\"1567\"><strong data-start=\"1545\" data-end=\"1559\">Northeast:<\/strong> +2.1%<\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li data-start=\"1568\" data-end=\"1591\">&#13;\n<p data-start=\"1570\" data-end=\"1591\"><strong data-start=\"1570\" data-end=\"1582\">Midwest:<\/strong> +0.3%<\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li data-start=\"1592\" data-end=\"1615\">&#13;\n<p data-start=\"1594\" data-end=\"1615\"><strong data-start=\"1594\" data-end=\"1604\">South:<\/strong> +1.0%<\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li data-start=\"1616\" data-end=\"1639\">&#13;\n<p data-start=\"1618\" data-end=\"1639\"><strong data-start=\"1618\" data-end=\"1627\">West:<\/strong> +6.0%<\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/li>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/ul>\n<p data-start=\"1641\" data-end=\"1692\">And the year-over-year change in contract activity:<\/p>\n<ul data-start=\"1694\" data-end=\"1790\">&#13;<\/p>\n<li data-start=\"1694\" data-end=\"1718\">&#13;\n<p data-start=\"1696\" data-end=\"1718\"><strong data-start=\"1696\" data-end=\"1710\">Northeast:<\/strong> \u20130.5%<\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li data-start=\"1719\" data-end=\"1742\">&#13;\n<p data-start=\"1721\" data-end=\"1742\"><strong data-start=\"1721\" data-end=\"1733\">Midwest:<\/strong> +2.6%<\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li data-start=\"1743\" data-end=\"1766\">&#13;\n<p data-start=\"1745\" data-end=\"1766\"><strong data-start=\"1745\" data-end=\"1755\">South:<\/strong> +2.0%<\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/li>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<li data-start=\"1767\" data-end=\"1790\">&#13;\n<p data-start=\"1769\" data-end=\"1790\"><strong data-start=\"1769\" data-end=\"1778\">West:<\/strong> \u20131.2%<\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/li>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/ul>\n<p data-start=\"1792\" data-end=\"2198\">All four regions posted monthly gains, with the West leading the way at +6.0%. Year-over-year, only the Midwest and South improved. While this week&#8217;s data avoids the kind of sharp declines seen earlier this year, the market continues to drift sideways. Without meaningful relief in mortgage rates, buyers and sellers are likely to remain cautious.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Association of Realtors&#8217; Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)\u2014which tracks contract signings on existing homes\u2014has remained rangebound for more than two years, constrained by affordability pressures and elevated mortgage rates. This week\u2019s update showed a modest improvement, but the broader story hasn\u2019t changed. Pending home sales rose by 1.8% in May, marking the first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[980,208,1070,259,308,687,309,1069],"class_list":["post-1287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loan","tag-change","tag-data","tag-game","tag-home","tag-pending","tag-points","tag-sales","tag-scores"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}