Pending home sales down 13% on year

By Edward Harrison On Jun 9, 2008

Why does the media report month to month statistics like they mean anything? It’s the year-on-year trend that is important. Note the headline in this item versus the reality.

April pending home sales rise as prices tumble

The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in April and seen as a key barometer of future housing activity, increased 6.3 percent to 88.2 from an unrevised 83.0 in March. Despite the uptick, sales were 13.1 percent lower than a year ago.

– Reuters, 9 June 2008

Housing

Edward Harrison 7783 posts 575 comments

Edward Harrison is a senior Editor at Bloomberg. He is also the founder of Credit Writedowns newsletter, a former career diplomat, investment banker and technology executive with over twenty five years of business experience. He speaks six languages and reads another five, skills he uses to provide a more global perspective. Edward holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.

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