Pending home sales in the U.S. increased by much less than expected in the month of April, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Thursday, with gains in the Northeast and Midwest largely offset by declines in the West and South.
NAR said its pending home sales index edged up by 0.3 percent to 106.0 in April after jumping by 1.5 percent to 105.7 in March. Economists had been expecting the index to increase by about 1.4 percent.
A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
Despite the much weaker than expected increase, the pending home sales index still reached its highest level since hitting 110.9 in April of 2010, just before the deadline for the homebuyer tax credit.
NAR also said the index is 10.3 percent above the 96.1 recorded in April of 2012, reflecting the twenty-fourth consecutive month of year-over-year growth.
"The housing market continues to squeak out gains from already very positive conditions," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. "Pending contracts so far this year easily correspond to higher closed home sales in 2013."
He added, "Because of inventory shortages, higher home sales will push up home values to the highest level in five years."
NAR forecast a 7 percent increase in existing home sales to about 5 million this year, with the national median existing home price expected to rise close to 8 percent and exceed $190,000.
The report said pending home sales in the Northeast jumped by 11.5 percent, while pending sales in the Midwest rose by 3.2 percent.
As mentioned above, however, the increases were largely offset by a 7.6 percent drop in pending home sales in the West and a 1.1 percent dip in pending sales in the South.
Last week, NAR released a separate report showing that existing home sales climbed 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in April from an upwardly revised 4.94 million in March.
The Commerce Department also released a report showing that new home sales climbed 2.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000 in April from the revised March rate of 444,000.
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