Pending Home Sales Down in September

Washington, DC, Nov. 8, 2010 -- Pending home sales fell nationwide in September after two months of gains, the National Association of Realtors said.

The association's pending sales index showed that sales decreased a seasonally adjusted 1.8% from August and 24.9% from September 2009.

'Existing-home sales have shown some improvement, but the foreclosure moratorium is likely to cause some disruption and contribute to an uneven sales performance in the months ahead," National Association of Realtors' Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a news release.

"Nonetheless, there appears to be a pent-up demand that eventually will be unleashed as banks resolve their issues with foreclosures and the labor market improves. However, tight credit and appraisals coming in below a negotiated price continue to constrain the market."

Yun expects sales of existing homes to gradually rise, with some occasional dips along the way.

"For 2011 we should see more than 5.1 million existing-home sales, up from about 4.8 million this year," he said.

"Housing starts are expected to rise to 716,000 in 2011 from 598,000 this year. We've added 30 million people to the U.S. population over the past 10 years, but sales are where they were in 2000, so there appears to be a sizable pent-up demand that could come to the market once the economy gathers momentum."