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In Case You Missed It: ABQ SEES SURGE IN HOME SALES; HIGHEST NUMBER SINCE 2006
ALBUQUERQUE, NM In yet another sign that steady, responsible leadership has put city on the right track, the Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday that the city has seen a surge in pending home sales a 24 percent increase from one year ago, and the highest number since May 2006. The Journal attributed the rise in home sales to "steady job gains," among other things. Just yesterday it was reported that the city's unemployment rate dropped to 6.4 percent from 7.1 percent.
Pending home sales edge higher in April ABQ metro area enjoys highest number since May 2006 Albuquerque Journal Journal Staff May 30, 2013 http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2013/05/30/biz/pending-home-sales-edge-higher-in-april.html The number of consumers who signed contracts to buy homes in Albuquerque and across the country ticked up in April, pointing to further strength in home sales in the coming months. In the Albuquerque metro area, pending home sales rose 24 percent over the same month a year earlier and April 2013 delivered the highest number of pending sales since May 2006, the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors reported. There were 1,280 pending sales in the metro in April compared to 1,108 the month before and 1,034 in April of 2012, GAAR data showed. The group called the April numbers a good start to the summer months which have traditionally been the highest sales months of the year. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that its seasonally adjusted index for pending home sales rose 0.3 percent to 106. Thats the highest since April 2010, when a homebuyer tax credit inflated sales. Signed contracts have jumped 10.3 percent in the past 12 months. There is generally a one- to twomonth lag between a signed contract and a completed sale.

Home sales and prices began to recover last year and have been buoyed by steady job gains and low mortgage rates. Sales of previously occupied homes rose in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million, a 3 1/2-year high. Sales of newly built homes also rose in April, to nearly a five-year high. Still, the supply of homes on the market remains low and that could keep sales from accelerating later this year. The number of available homes for sale rose in April, the Realtors group said last week, but was still down 14 percent from a year earlier. Fewer homes for sale may be holding back sales in tight markets in the West, such as Las Vegas, Nev., and Phoenix. In those cities, many homeowners still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. The trend showed up in the April pending home sales report. Signed contracts to buy homes soared 11.5 percent last month in the Northeast and 3.2 percent in the Midwest. But they fell 7.6 percent in the West and 1.1 percent in the South. ###