U.S. pending home sales up 1.5 percent in September

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced on Tuesday its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index (PHSI) rose 1.5 percent m-o-m to 108.7 in September, after a revised 1.4 percent m-o-m gain in August (originally an advance of 1.6 percent m-o-m).

Economists had expected pending home sales to increase 0.9 percent m-o-m in September.

On y-o-y basis, the index climbed 3.9 percent after a 2.5 percent increase in August. That was the largest annual advance in pending home sales since December 2015.

According to the report, the pending home sales were mixed in m-o-m terms across the nation's four regions. The PHSI in the Northeast dropped 0.4percent m-o-m to 93.9 in September, but is still 1.3 percent higher than a year ago. In the Midwest, the index went up 3.1 percent m-o-m to 104.4 in September, 2.7 percent higher than September 2018. Pending home sales in the South climbed 2.6 percent m-o-m to an index of 127.5, a 5.7 percent surge from last September. The index in the West fell 1.3 percent m-o-m to 95.1, which is a gain of 3.4 percent from a year ago.