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Home Sales May Pick Up
CNNMoney.com - August 1 2007: 10:08 AM EDTPending home sales index shows surprising gain in June, suggesting more deals to buy houses are in pipeline to close.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home sales could see an increase in the coming months, according to the latest reading on the state of the battered U.S. real estate market from an industry trade group that showed surprising strength.
The National Association of Realtors' pending home sales index jumped 5 percent to 102.4 in June, the group announced Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast the index would another slip 0.6 percent after a revised 3.7 percent drop in the May report.
It was the biggest increase in the index in three years.
The index was created in 2001 to be a more forward-looking reading on home sales than the group's existing home sales report, which charts sales at the time of closing. The pending home sales index tracks when a sales agreement is signed, generally a month or two ahead of closing.