NEW YORK - Pending home sales surged 10.4% to a reading of 89.3 in October from an unrevised 1.8% dip to 80.9 in September, according to an index released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters predicted an 80.1 reading for the index.
Year-over-year the pending homes sales index was down 20.5% from last October, when the index was 112.4.
Regionally, pending sales were mostly higher. The Northeast saw a 19.6% increase to 71.3, while sales soared 27.3% to 81.7 in the Midwest. In the South sales gained 7.1% to 93.8, while in the West, pending sales dipped 0.4% to 104.3.
“It is welcoming to see a solid double-digit percentage gain, but activity needs to improve further to reach healthy, sustainable levels,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. “The housing market clearly is in a recovery phase and will be uneven at times, but the improving job market and consequential boost to household formation will help the recovery process going into 2011,” he said.
“More importantly, a return to more normal loan underwriting standards and removal of unnecessary underwriting fees for very low risk borrowers is needed and could quickly help in the housing and economic recovery,” Yun said.
