CA pending home sales decrease during December
Jan 25 2012 6:14PM
The California Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index met seasonal expectations as is dropped from November to December. Despite the fall for the last month of 2011, that the index is higher than it was in December 2010, marking the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year increases.
The PHSI for the month of December fell to 91.6, down from 108.7 the previous month, but remained higher than the 82.5 from the previous year. The decrease was predicted as home sales tend to slow throughout the holiday season, especially between November and December.
In addition to lower pending home sales, the CAR reports that the sales of distressed properties increased in December as short sales and REOs dominated the market just before the new year. Fifty-two percent of homes sold were equity sales, lower than the 55.1 percent in November but higher than 51.7 percent in December 2010. Of all distressed properties sold, 22.2 percent were short sales while REOs represented 24.6 percent of all sales in the last month of 2011.
