While national and local existing-home sales were down last month, Redfin has found that pending sales had a small rebound. According to new numbers, pending home sales were up 0.7 percent from a month earlier to the highest level since the start of the year on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Still, they were only 5.4 percent above the low point they hit in March. Pending sales fell 15.7 percent year-over-year, the smallest annual decline since last summer.
“Home sales hit a bottom in 2022 and haven’t meaningfully budged since,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “Fading recession fears and the prospect of further home price increases have brought some house hunters off the sidelines, but for the most part, buyers remain hesitant to jump into the market because their buying power is so much lower than it was a year ago.”
The total number of homes for sale fell 3.9 percent month- over-month in July to the lowest level on record, and declined 19.5 percent from a year earlier. That’s the biggest annual decline in more than two years.