August Pending Home Sales

From HousingWire:

Pending home sales slowed in August

Despite slowing in August, pending home sales are still running at the second-highest level in the past 12 months, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Declines were evident in every region except for the West, which saw its fourth consecutive quarter of gains.

NAR’s pending homes sales index is a based on contract signings.

The index dropped 1% to 104.7 in August from 105.8 in July, and is now 2.2% below the reading in August 2013.

The index is above 100 – considered an average level of contract activity – for the fourth consecutive month and is at the second-highest level since last August.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says contract signings are holding steady and fewer distressed sales and less investor activity are driving the decline.

“Fewer distressed homes at bargain prices and the acknowledgement we’re entering a rising interest rate environment likely caused hesitation among investors last month,” he said. “With investors pulling back, the market is shifting more towards traditional and first-time buyers who rely on mortgages to purchase a home.”

The index in the West rose for the fourth consecutive month, up 2.6% in August to 102.1, but still remains 2.6% below August 2013.

The Northeast saw the index slide 3% to 86.5 in August, but is still 1.6% above a year ago. In the Midwest the index fell 2.1% to 102.4 in August, and is 7.6% below August 2013.

Pending home sales in the South decreased 1.4% to an index of 117.0 in August, unchanged from a year ago. Existing-home sales are expected to be stronger in the second half of the year behind improved inventory conditions, continuously low interest rates and slower price growth.

This entry was posted in Demographics, Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate. Bookmark the permalink.

53 Responses to August Pending Home Sales

  1. chicagofinance says:

    I claim frist in the non-nihilist category…….

  2. anon (the good one) says:

    “middle class” is such a bogus concept…”poor” is more accurate

  3. jj says:

    Number four now get on the floor

  4. Toxic Crayons says:

    Hey anon, what are your thoughts on the proposed increased gas tax in NJ? Should we increase it? Wouldn’t that unfairly burden the middle class er I mean poor?

  5. joyce says:

    White House May Check Tourists Blocks Away
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/us/white-house-security-mulls-tourist-screens.html?_r=1

    sorry. we screwed up and now you’re going to suffer. don’t worry, it won’t be as invasive as the TSA (for now). how long until other/all govt buildings do the same thing?

  6. jj says:

    According to Diners, Dives and Drive-ins plenty of places to get gas in NJ

    Toxic Crayons says:

    September 30, 2014 at 8:29 am

    Hey anon, what are your thoughts on the proposed increased gas tax in NJ? Should we increase it? Wouldn’t that unfairly burden the middle class er I mean poor?

  7. 1987 Condo says:

    #6…lesson learned, lock the front door…..

  8. Anon E. Moose says:

    Tool [3];

    “middle class” is such a bogus concept…”poor” is more accurate

    You sound like you’re bragging. Just give Obama another two terms and it will happen.

  9. Ottoman says:

    “middle class” is such a bogus concept…”poor” is more accurate

    The middle class actually brought most of the misery inflicted upon them down on themselves by disengaging in politics. Doesn’t help that most people also have a tendency of being rather stupid, easily lead, and succumbing to fear mongering. Yes, corporations and their puppet government have been drugging and manipulating people with easy credit and scary wars and shiny phones and Jeebus based textbooks in schools. Just look at the dummies around here that b!tch about dark skinned people with obamaphones instead of corporate funding of elections. They go on and on about the virtues of capitalism all the while we saw what unbridled capitalism did back in the 1800s. Wonder what would happen if a majority of Americans just stopped paying their mortgages and rents for a few months and making big purchases, especially from big box stores. There are ways out of slavery.

  10. Toxic Crayons says:

    An examination of the effects of concealed weapons
    laws and assault weapons bans on state-level murder
    rates

    http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13504851.2013.854294

    “Limiting the ability to carry concealed weapons may cause murder rates to increase”

    Fabius Maximus says:
    September 29, 2014 at 8:34 pm
    Someone must have forgotten to post this!

    New FBI Report Casts Doubt on NRA’s ‘Good Guy Stops Bad Guy’ Nonsense
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-weisser/fbi-report-active-shooters_b_5900748.html

  11. Ottoman says:

    The sniper that hit the White House in 2011 and broke windows and concrete off the building did so from 800 yards away. Apparently 5 Secret Service agents reported the shots as the time but they didn’t check into it or look for the guy until 4 days later when the maid found the debris.

    White House May Check Tourists Blocks Away
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/us/white-house-security-mulls-tourist-screens.html?_r=1

    sorry. we screwed up and now you’re going to suffer. don’t worry, it won’t be as invasive as the TSA (for now). how long until other/all govt buildings do the same thing?

  12. Fast Eddie says:

    G0d bless the rich on this beautiful day. If it wasn’t for them, most of us wouldn’t have the fulfilling lifestyle that we enjoy. If potential entrepreneurs could only break the chains of government obstruction, imagine how the private sector would thrive.

  13. Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. Captain Justice says:

    [11] toxic

    While I appreciate the fact that there are studies that appear to refute the arguments raised by the gun grabbers, I fear that this study suffers from the fact that correlation doesn’t always equal causation.

    However, the study is useful for refuting the idea that more and easier access to guns, and less restriction on carry laws would lead to more killing.

    I would love to see our side tell the Fabians of the nation, “Okay, we want a dialogue and will give on your ‘common sense’ requests, but we have a wish list and demand protection from arbitrary, agenda-pushing, overreach. Will you come to the table?” The left won’t agree and that will help shift the narrative.

  14. Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. Captain Justice says:

    [13] eddie,

    You have it all wrong. It’s the poor that create all the jobs, and the rich that just take and take from the public fisc.

    Get it right or you will have to be re-educated.

    Sincerely,
    O’Brien

  15. t25 says:

    reward, I know, meaning “aerobic exercise”, elderly fitness. Very happy for you! * create music Canon notes for you and for your service Master music ~ ~ ~ look for “Ku saint” if the same all is copy for ~~~—- first for you to recommend a Beautiful music site Super all – new songs old songs domestic foreign songs free to listen to Ranking song singer name trend this week 1 I and you Liu Huan Sarah Brightman up to 08 Olympic Games Theme Song “you and me” 2 is full of loving Fish Leong down the

  16. Ragnar says:

    10, Yes, please everyone, do look at what capitalism brought the US and the world since around 1800. See page 27-28 of the following history of the world economy
    http://theunbrokenwindow.com/Development/MADDISON%20The%20World%20Economy–A%20Millennial.pdf
    From the year 1AD to 1820AD, World per capita income growth was roughly zero. In 1820, global per capita GDP was roughly $700 per year.
    Thanks to capitalism, from 1820 to 1998, world per capita GDP grew to about $6,000, with much greater wealth going to the most capitalist countries.

    So again, to those who deserve it I repeat: “Your kind of intellectuals are the first to scream when it’s safe—and the first to shut their traps at the first sign of danger. They spend years spitting at the man who feeds them—and they lick the hand of the man who slaps their drooling faces.”

  17. Essex says:

    15. “the poor” just are. But the question would be why should someone poor be a target for your hostility. Can’t you find a decent piece of truckstop ass to destroy?

  18. gary (13)-

    Dude, those days are gone forever. Bow down to your gubmint master, bitch.

  19. plume (14)-

    Unfortunately, the idiots at the NRA have stolen the conservative side of the gun debate, much in the same way that the Amerikan Taliban and Koch brothers have hijacked the Rethuglican party.

    Money talks. It is also the only way to get a seat at the shrinking public debate table.

    Sadly, the only thing that will now trump the oversize influence of money is bullets.

  20. sx (18)-

    You didn’t get the memo. God hates poor people.

  21. Bill O’Reilly and Paul Ryan told me so.

  22. Fast Eddie says:

    ” truckstop ass”

    Sounds like the title for a Motorhead song!

  23. Anon E. Moose says:

    Clot [20, 21];

    Bow down to your gubmint master, bitch.

    …the Amerikan Taliban and Koch brothers have hijacked the Rethuglican party.

    I understand the “pox on both your houses” attitude. Here’s what I don’t get: the same people who impose the “Bow down to your gubmint master, bitch” apparatus are the ones who throw around juvenile names like “Rethuglican”, “American Taliban”, and b!tch & moan about the Koch brothers — including the distinguished Senate Majority leader who almost daily rants from the well of the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” about the temerity of two American citizens exercising their free speech rights in defiance of the way King Harry says things should be.

    For someone who thinks no party is better than the other, you sure sound like someone who’s swallowed the leftists part line, or at least their language.

    What gives?

  24. Toxic Crayons says:

    I can’t wait for the day the NRA finally wins the fight for shall issue concealed carry issue permits in Washington DC….and people sign up for them in droves. Should be interesting to watch.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/mike-debonis/wp/2014/09/25/nra-rep-on-new-d-c-gun-law-were-obviously-going-to-continue-to-fight-this/

  25. Ragnar says:

    Agreed. The organizations Koch support are generally the libertarian wing of the Republicans over the establishment or religious wings, so in my view are a better influence on that party. And they are a great bogeyman for small minds.

  26. joyce says:

    If one thinks all are bad, do they have to state that every time they criticize one of them? or did I not follow your question

    Anon E. Moose says:
    September 30, 2014 at 11:52 am

    For someone who thinks no party is better than the other, you sure sound like someone who’s swallowed the leftists part line, or at least their language.

    What gives?

  27. Anon E. Moose says:

    Joyce [27];

    My point is if one criticized both side, but uses the ‘jargon’ of only one side, are they really that dissatisfied with both sides?

  28. joyce says:

    Maybe he only used jargon you disprove of in that one post… not always. That’s my point. Plus, you REALLY need to get off the two different sides left right crap.

  29. anon (the good one) says:

    that’s my point. poor people disengage because they consider themselves “middle class”

    Ottoman says:
    September 30, 2014 at 9:06 am
    “middle class” is such a bogus concept…”poor” is more accurate

    The middle class actually brought most of the misery inflicted upon them down on themselves by disengaging in politics. Doesn’t help that most people also have a tendency of being rather stupid, easily lead, and succumbing to fear mongering. Yes, corporations and their puppet government have been drugging and manipulating people with easy credit and scary wars and shiny phones and Jeebus based textbooks in schools. Just look at the dummies around here that b!tch about dark skinned people with obamaphones instead of corporate funding of elections. They go on and on about the virtues of capitalism all the while we saw what unbridled capitalism did back in the 1800s. Wonder what would happen if a majority of Americans just stopped paying their mortgages and rents for a few months and making big purchases, especially from big box stores. There are ways out of slavery.

  30. anon (the good one) says:

    fully agree with joyce. you need to get a more nuanced view of the world

    joyce says:
    September 30, 2014 at 12:41 pm
    Maybe he only used jargon you disprove of in that one post… not always. That’s my point. Plus, you REALLY need to get off the two different sides left right crap.

  31. Reactionaries R'Us says:

    Remember, the Koch brothers’ father made his money the old fashioned way, working with Stalin’s Soviet Union. Some call them libertarian. But how libertarian?

    From the Business Insider cut and paste factory:

    There are always politicians who say that things were better in the past.

    And the top judicial official in Russia is one of them — he appears to be advocating a return to serfdom.

    Valery Zorkin, the head of Russia’s Constitutional Court, wrote an article that was published in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta in which he praised serfdom.

    (In Russia, Zorkin is the equivalent rank of the US Supreme Court’s Chief Justice John Roberts.)

    In the article he says the global situation is becoming increasingly more dangerous and that the system of international law is now based on “free interpretations from a position of strength.”

    He doesn’t agree with the “free interpretations” of international law and suggests that it must be corrected by increased legal authority.

    And then he switches gears to serfdom.

    He advocates for serfdom and says that it was the main “staple” holding Russia together in the 19th century. He justifies his argument by saying that serfdom is beneficial for the serfs.

    In the article he writes (translated from the original Russian by Business Insider):

    Even with all of its shortcomings, serfdom was exactly the main staple holding the inner unity of the nation. It was no accident that the peasants, according to historians, told their former masters after the reforms: ‘We were yours, and you — ours.’
    The significance of Zorkin’s serfdom advocacy

    The roughly translated term “staple” (in Russian “скрепа”) is significant. It’s an older word that has become popular in recent years after Putin used it in a news conference in 2012.

    Prior to the conference, that word was basically never used in speech.

    In the news conference, Putin said there was a “lack of a spiritual staples” among Russians — meaning there was no spiritual unity. And he subsequently indicated that Russia needed a “spiritual cleanse.”

    “Putin essentially used the term ‘скрепа’ to mean the ‘spiritual staples that unite the Russian society.’ He was saying that we need a spiritual unity amongst the whole Russian society,” a Moscovite told Business Insider.

    Following Putin’s news conference, Russian politicians and citizens have started using the word all over the place.

    And Zorkin is following suit by using the Putin terminology to indicate that serfdom is the “spiritual staple that unites the [Russian] society.”
    Zorkin also compares the repeal of serfdom to Boris Yeltsin’s reforms

    Agrarian reforms were led by the former prime minister Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin. Serfdom was officially repealed in 1861 in Russia.

    Zorkin argues in his article that: “Stolypin’s reform took away communal justice from the peasants in exchange for individual freedom, which almost none of them knew how to live and which was depriving their community guarantees of survival.”

    He closes the piece by comparing the “abrupt” repeal of serfdom to the “abrupt” changes of the late 20th century following Boris Yeltsin’s reforms.

    In case your history is a little shaky, Boris Yeltsin is the former Russian president who transitioned the country from the communist Soviet Union to the pre-Putin capitalist Russia.

  32. Anon E. Moose says:

    Tool [30];

    that’s my point. poor people disengage because they consider themselves “middle class”

    Considering what they get in government handouts, but worldwide standards, they are.

    And I noticed you haven’t been generous enough this year. You should vote some Chicago thug into office to pick my pocket, skim 1/3 for themselves, give 1/3 to some patronage hack via government job, and finally give 1/3 to some poor slob who just barely needs it more than I do. That will make you feel better about yourself.

  33. chi in People's Republic of Ithaca says:

    Texas has first Ebola case in US

  34. grim says:

    The stories about Ebola being sexually transmitted are quite scary.

  35. Happy Renter says:

    [36][37] Ruh-roh . . . I can’t think of a worse place in America to be during a pandemic than a daily commuter in Manhattan . . .

    I know that Ebola hasn’t been found to be casually transmitted like the flu virus (yet) but it’s still not a pleasant thought.

  36. Juice Box says:

    re #37 – Apparently they ritually wash the dead bodies by hand before burial and that spreads the infection and since the body is transported HOME across towns and borders before it is washed by family and it spreads geographically that way.

    Now that more people are dying the dead bodies now lay in the street and are feasted upon by wild dogs and other animals who then become carriers.

    Our Navy is there setting up a dozen or so field hospitals aka Isolation centers. Fire pits for the dead may the norm soon, no more rituals and hopefully the ban on bush meat will be adhered, no more gorilla or bat meat.

    Perhaps we should send them some Beef Jerky for protein since it does not need refrigeration?

  37. Juice Box says:

    Yeah, me going to a few football games may be fun but the girls have us out done.

    My wife and friends from college are headed here soon while I sit home and care for our kids.

    http://www.vrbo.com/483510?utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=20140127&utm_content=propertyid_text_o_loth&utm_campaign=VRBOOwnerInquiry

  38. Michael says:

    I think the introduction of oil had more to do with that than capitalism. Also, all the new technology developed from 1880’s to 1998 played a major role. Imo, capitalism really had nothing to do with it.

    Ragnar says:
    September 30, 2014 at 10:48 am
    10, Yes, please everyone, do look at what capitalism brought the US and the world since around 1800. See page 27-28 of the following history of the world economy
    http://theunbrokenwindow.com/Development/MADDISON%20The%20World%20Economy–A%20Millennial.pdf
    From the year 1AD to 1820AD, World per capita income growth was roughly zero. In 1820, global per capita GDP was roughly $700 per year.
    Thanks to capitalism, from 1820 to 1998, world per capita GDP grew to about $6,000, with much greater wealth going to the most capitalist countries.

    So again, to those who deserve it I repeat: “Your kind of intellectuals are the first to scream when it’s safe—and the first to shut their traps at the first sign of danger. They spend years spitting at the man who feeds them—and they lick the hand of the man who slaps their drooling faces.”

  39. Michael says:

    41- And don’t come back explaining to me that an economic system is what drives technology and innovation. Human minds drive technology and innovation.

  40. Michael says:

    Well said.

    Ottoman says:
    September 30, 2014 at 9:06 am
    “middle class” is such a bogus concept…”poor” is more accurate

    The middle class actually brought most of the misery inflicted upon them down on themselves by disengaging in politics. Doesn’t help that most people also have a tendency of being rather stupid, easily lead, and succumbing to fear mongering. Yes, corporations and their puppet government have been drugging and manipulating people with easy credit and scary wars and shiny phones and Jeebus based textbooks in schools. Just look at the dummies around here that b!tch about dark skinned people with obamaphones instead of corporate funding of elections. They go on and on about the virtues of capitalism all the while we saw what unbridled capitalism did back in the 1800s. Wonder what would happen if a majority of Americans just stopped paying their mortgages and rents for a few months and making big purchases, especially from big box stores. There are ways out of slavery.

  41. surprised says:

    You are a hypocrite. You yourself prefer this slavery and eat the american capitalism crumbs rather than understand what real unemployment means or worse die from ebola. The only reason you enjoy that modicum of good life is that american capitalism makes sure that other people do not.

    Ottoman says:
    September 30, 2014 at 9:06 am
    They go on and on about the virtues of capitalism all the while we saw what unbridled capitalism did back in the 1800s. Wonder what would happen if a majority of Americans just stopped paying their mortgages and rents for a few months and making big purchases, especially from big box stores. There are ways out of slavery.

  42. anon (24)-

    You’re the one who’s sucked in by the political flim-flam, pal.

    Sorry that you don’t like it when I get specific in my anti-Rethuglican rants. The Koch brothers are the spawn of Satan, and Mitch McConnell is Pelosi with a pen!s.

    Maybe tomorrow, I’ll go batshit on Steny Hoyer and Maxine Waters and a few other minstrel show rejects on the Dumbocrat side…but if you think ANY- and I mean ANY- politician that runs for elective office is anything more than a sucking bag of sociopathic need, then please buy the bridge to nowhere I have on sale at EBay.

    Thank you, and enjoy the rest of your life.

  43. joyce (27)-

    Don’t worry, my friend. Moose has just conceded to us all that he is actually no different than anon. He just cheers for the other side in the fcuked up, high school color war that passes for politics in our God-forsaken country.

    The only thing of consequence to note here is that anyone who runs for elective office- even for local dog catcher- is mentally ill, narcissistic and a danger to society at large.

    “If one thinks all are bad, do they have to state that every time they criticize one of them? or did I not follow your question.”

  44. anon (28)-

    Jesus. I’ve called the president Bojangles for seven years, compared Pelosi’s face to dead people in rigor mortis, implied that John Kerry fits the clinical definition of imbecile and called for someone to shoot at least ten Dumbocrat clowngressmen.

    Please, please tell me how your side is somehow better. Whatever you throw down, I will raise you a drunken, brawling Palin and a closeted Lindsay Graham.

  45. Yeah. Closeted Lindsay Graham. When you go on dates with a piece of human garbage like Ann Coulter, it’s a sign you’ve exhausted all your other opportunities for cover.

  46. It’s the modern day version of Andy Warhol hanging out with Liz Taylor.

  47. anon (31)-

    Fully agree with most of this board that you need to go play in traffic. I’ll fight my own battles, pea-brain.

    “fully agree with joyce. you need to get a more nuanced view of the world”

  48. reactionaries (33)-

    Yeah. All the dolts making apologies for the Koch beelzebubs forget that the whole family fortune is derived from the old man’s support of a dictator who killed more people than H!tler.

    Sorry for punching the H!tler button here, grim. At least I waited until what I could say was true.

    “Remember, the Koch brothers’ father made his money the old fashioned way, working with Stalin’s Soviet Union. Some call them libertarian. But how libertarian?”

    fully agree with joyce. you need to get a more nuanced view of the world

  49. chi (36)-

    Execute the mofo before he can get out of Texas.

    Then again, could it just be it’s Rick Perry with a nosebleed?

    “Texas has first Ebola case in US”

  50. This ebola thingy should have Stu commuting in his car every day until he retires.

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