Pending sales: Still stuck below 2009 levels
The latest pending sales report is out, and the Massachusetts Association of Realtors is touting the "first year-over-year increase since December, 2010."
That's technically true, but it hardly tells us what's really going on with home sales, which have been lost in the shadow of ongoing drama over the double dip in prices.
A close look at the numbers hardly points to a revival, but rather how brittle the real estate market still is across the Bay State.
OK, pending sales rose 2.1 percent in May compared to May of 2010, but hold the champagne.
May 2010 saw home sales activity drop off the cliff, both here in Massachusetts and across the country, with the first time home buyers tax credit having expired that April 30th.
So it didn't take much to beat those May 2010 numbers.
More pertinent is whether pending sales are at least back up to 2009 levels, a dubious benchmark given the state and the nation were still in the throes of the Great Recession.
Surprise, surprise, they aren't. May pending home sales, at 4,760, are actually a notch below May 2009, when 4,802 pending sales were reported.
Ah, if we could just get back to good old days of 2009.
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