The barrage of positive housing data continued yesterday as April Pending Home Sales — which measure contracts signed for new purchases — jumped 6.7% from a month ago. The index, which is viewed as a leading indicator for future sales, was also up 3.2% from this time last year, according to Bloomberg.

Sales continued to be the strongest in regions dominated by foreclosures, as “bargain” prices, low interest rates and first time homebuyer tax incentives encouraged buyers to step back into the market. Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors’ perennially optimistic Chief Economist, said “The market has already bottomed in some areas, but this is an unusual housing cycle with some areas improving rapidly while others languish or decline.”

In other words, the guy who is supposed to know more about the state of the US housing market than anyone else in the country appears confused by the fact that real estate, in fact, is local.

As reported here at Cirios Real Estate for months, home price trends are becoming increasingly localized, as supply/demand fundamentals down to the street levels drive property values. It’s no longer sufficient to say that home prices in X city, or X county, or even X zip code have done Y. Only analysis down to the neighborhood level can give you an accurate picture of where prices are going for an individual house.

And as housing data steadily improves, it is all the more important for buyers to have price trend experts like Cirios on their side.