Following a pattern set with both existing home sales and new homes sales, pending home sales bounced in February, up 2.1% from the previous month. The National Association of Realtors’ released its monthly index that tracks the number of signed contracts, showing a gain to 82.1, from 80.4 in January. A reading under 100 indicates a depressed market.

It seems everyone is jumping on the home buying wagon, even the chief economist at Standard and Poors is getting bullish “We are seeing a bottom in housing sales. People are coming in as bargain hunters. This is a good time to be buying a house.”

Meanwhile, home prices keep tumbling — the S&P Chase/Shiller Home Price Index recorded its worst monthly decline on record and one Barclays analyst said she doesn’t expect home prices to bottom until next year

Typically, home sales find a bottom prior to prices. As inventory is worked off, supply becomes more constricted and the power slowly shifts away from buyers and towards sellers. In the frenzy to be the first to accurately call a bottom, bold analysts are throwing caution, and the notion that one month does not a trend make, to the wind.

But rest assured, those same analysts will be calling this pop an anomaly when the data come around in another 30 days.

Tags: bottom, Foreclosures/REOs, Housing, NAR, pending home sales

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