NEW YORK - Pending home sales climbed 2.4% to a reading of 90.9 in June from a revised 88.8 in May, according to a report released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters predicted a 2.0% decrease for the index.
The May index was originally reported as an 8.2% increase to 88.8.
Year-over-year the pending homes sales index is up 19.8% from last June, when the index was 75.9.
Regionally, pending sales were mixed. The Northeast saw a 0.4% decrease to 68.9, while sales decreased 3.7% in the Midwest to 79.7. Sales rose 4.4% to 99.2 in the South and climbed 6.4% to 107.0 in the West.
“For the majority of transactions, the lag time between pending contacts to actual closings is one to two months. Therefore, the two consecutive months of rising activity should lead to overall improvement in closed sales in upcoming months,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. “Though a higher than normal cancellation rate can hold back final closing figures, it could well be that some past cancellations are nothing more than delayed buying decisions rather than outright cancellations,” he said.
