Indicators
US Pending Home Sales Fall by Most in Two Years as Rates Rise
- Contract signings dropped more than 10% in September
- Excluding early months of pandemic, index is lowest since 2010
A home under construction in Sumter, South Carolina.
Photographer: Micah Green/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
US pending home sales sank last month by the most since the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, illustrating a swift and steep downturn for a housing market beset by soaring borrowing costs.
The National Association of Realtors index of contract signings to purchase previously owned homes decreased 10.2% in September, the sharpest fall since April 2020, according to data released Friday. The drop was worse than the most downbeat projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists.