Homes Listed Unchanged in January 2008

An article from CNNMoney.com, reports that the number of homes under contract for sale was unchanged in January, leaving that measure of the battered real estate market just barely above the record low, according to the latest reading from the National Association of Realtors. The Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index came in at 85.9 in the month, the same as in December, which was the second-lowest reading on record. The Pending Home Sales Index is considered a more forward-looking indicator of home sales than the same group's more closely followed existing home sales report, which tracks sales at the time of closing, typically a month or two after a sales contract is signed. The Realtors also released an updated economic and sales outlook that now sees the sales pace and prices for existing homes during the first half of this year slightly worse than in its February estimate. But it is still sticking with a forecast of a modest turnaround in the second half of the year. For the full year it sees a 1.2% decline in median home prices, unchanged from its earlier estimate and nearly matching the 1.4% decline posted in 2007, the first year on record that the group has seen a full-year drop in the value of existing homes sold.