The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in December, 2009, increased 1% to 96.6 from 95.6 in November, and remains 10.9% above December 2008.

The NAR chief economist said it’s important to recognize how the first-time buyers and repeat-buyers tax credit is skewing market data. “There are easily understood swings in contract activity as buyers respond to a tax credit that was due to expire and was then extended and expanded.  These swings are masking the underlying trend which is a broad improvement over year-ago levels. December activity was the fifth highest monthly tally in two years.

Buyers who have a contract in place to purchase a primary residence by April 30,2010 have until June 30,2010 to finalize the transaction to qualify for a tax credit of up to $8000 for first-time buyers and up to $6500 for repeat buyers.

The economist project the extended and expanded tax credit will encourage 2.4 million households to take the credit in 2010. He added that one of the greatest benefits of rising ssales will be firming home prices.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 8:04 pm and is filed under My Real Estate Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.