US Pending Homes Rise in January

February 28, 2014 Share Print 0

Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes edged up in January after a weather-related hit at the end of last year, offering hope the housing recovery would get back on track.

The National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index, based on contracts signed last month, rose 0.1 percent to 95.0 in January.

The increase followed a revised 5.8 percent December drop that had taken pending sales to their lowest level since November 2011.

“Ongoing disruptive weather patterns in much of the U.S. inhibited home shopping,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said in a statement. “Limited inventory also is playing a role, especially in the West, while credit remains tight and affordability isn’t as favorable as it was a year ago.”

via Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.