By CountingPips.com
U.S. Pending Homes sales declined sharply in the month of November according to the monthly report released by the National Association of Realtors(NAR) today. The NAR report showed that pending home sales contracts signed by buyers fell by 16.0 percent in November following October’s 3.9 percent increase. Despite the monthly decline, pending home sales were 15.5 percent above the November 2008 sales level. November’s sales drop surpassed 
market forecasts that were expecting an approximate 2.0 percent fall for the month.
NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun commented on November’s report saying, “It will be at least early spring before we see notable gains in sales activity as home buyers respond to the recently extended and expanded tax credit. The fact that pending home sales are comfortably above year-ago levels shows the market has gained sufficient momentum on its own. We expect another surge in the spring as more home buyers take advantage of affordable housing conditions before the tax credit expires.”
Pending home sales in the Northeast fell by 25.7 percent in November while the Midwest also saw a decline by 25.7 percent for the month. The South and the West saw lesser declines in November with decreases of 15.0 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively. On an annual basis, all four areas were above the November 2008 sales level with the Northeast showing an annual gain of 14.7 percent, the Midwest showing a 9.2 percent annual rise, the South showing a 14.7 percent increase and the West showing a 21.4 percent advancement.
US Dollar showing mixed results in forex trading.
The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex trading today against the major currencies after the Pending Home Sales data. The dollar has gained versus the euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar while falling against the Canadian dollar and the Japanese yen according to currency data by Oanda at 1:19 pm EST.
The US stock markets have traded lower today after yesterday’s strong gains with the Dow Jones falling by over 30 points and the Nasdaq decreasing over 4 points while the S&P 500 is unchanged at the time of writing. Oil has edged higher to trade around $81.65 while gold has gained by almost $4.00 to trading around the $1,121.10 per ounce level.
