June Home Sales up

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) home sales contracts signed in June unexpectedly rose across the country, but still were below year-earlier levels. The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index, which is based on contracts signed in June, was up 5.3 percent to 89.0 from a downwardly revised 84.5 in May. This development is in sharp contrast to forecasts by economists recently polled by media outlets who had predicted home sales contracts would decline by 1 percent.