U.S. pending home sales surge 16.6% in June

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced on Wednesday its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index (PHSI) climbed 16.6 percent m-o-m to 116.1 in June, after an unrevised 44.3 percent m-o-m jump in May.

Economists had expected pending home sales to jump 15.0 percent m-o-m in June.

On y-o-y basis, the index rose 6.3 percent after a 5.1 percent decline in May.

According to the report, all regional indices recorded m-o-m gains in May. The Northeast PHSI climbed 54.4 percent m-o-m to 95.4 in June, but was still down 0.9 percent from a year ago. In the Midwest, the index surged 12.2 percent m-o-m to 110.9 last month, up 5.1 percent from June 2019. Pending home sales in the South jumped 11.9 percent m-o-m to an index of 140.3 in June, up 10.3 percent from June 2019. The index in the West grew 11.6 percent m-o-m in June to 99.6, up 4.7 percent from a year ago.

“It is quite surprising and remarkable that, in the midst of a global pandemic, contract activity for home purchases is higher compared to one year ago,” noted Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Consumers are taking advantage of record-low mortgage rates resulting from the Federal Reserve’s maximum liquidity monetary policy.”