A report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released on Thursday indicated that pending home sales in the U.S. experienced a modest rebound in August.
According to the NAR, its pending home sales index rose by 0.6 percent to 70.6 in August, in contrast to a steep 5.5 percent drop to 70.2 in July.
Pending home sales refer to transactions where a contract has been signed but not yet finalized, typically requiring four to six weeks to close.
"This slight uptick points to a modest improvement in housing affordability, largely due to mortgage rates falling to 6.5% in August," stated NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.
He added, "However, contract signings remain near cyclical lows even as home prices continue to hit new record highs."
The rebound in pending home sales was driven partly by substantial growth in the Midwest and West, where sales surged by 3.2 percent in both regions.
Sales in the South saw a marginal increase of 0.1 percent, while the Northeast experienced a significant decline of 4.6 percent.
Separately, a report from the Commerce Department on Wednesday revealed that new home sales in the U.S. sharply decreased in August.
The Commerce Department reported that new home sales plummeted by 4.7 percent to an annual rate of 716,000 in August, following a substantial 10.3 percent rise to a revised rate of 751,000 in July.
Economists had predicted a 5.3 percent decrease in new home sales, anticipating a rate of 700,000 from the initially reported 739,000 for the previous month.
The upwardly revised rate for July was the highest since new home sales reached an annual rate of 781,000 in February 2022.
