U.S. pending home sales unexpectedly decline in April

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced on Thursday its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index (PHSI) plunged 4.4 percent m-o-m to 106.2 in April, after a revised 1.7 percent m-o-m increase in March (originally a 1.9 percent m-o-m gain).

Economists had expected pending home sales to increase 0.8 percent m-o-m in April.

On y-o-y basis, the index surged 51.7 percent after an unrevised 23.3 percent jump in March. This was the biggest gain on record, reflecting a sharp rebound from April 2020, when pandemic-related shutdowns slumped sales to an all-time low.

According to the report, three of the four regional indices recorded m-o-m drops in April, but each index showed double-digit y-o-y growth. The Northeast PHSI tumbled 12.9 percent m-o-m to 85.3 in April, a 96.5 percent jump from a year ago. Pending home sales transactions in the South decreased 6.1 percent m-o-m to an index of 128.9 in April, up 45.3 percent from April 2020. The index in the West fell 2.6 percent m-o-m in April to 92.0, up 57.3 percent from a year prior. Meanwhile, the PHSI for the Midwest rose 3.5 percent m-o-m to 101.1 last month, up 39.4 percent from April 2020.

"Contract signings are approaching pre-pandemic levels after the big surge due to the lack of sufficient supply of affordable homes," noted Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. "The upper-end market is still moving sharply as inventory is more plentiful there."