RISMEDIA, Dec. 14, 2007-After decreasing for the previous two months, The Prudential Fox & Roach, REALTORS® HomExpert Pending Home Sales Index© showed a positive change in real estate activity throughout the Greater Philadelphia region* for October. Based on the forward-looking indicator, the region showed a 9.3% increase in activity to 85.8 in October from the revised September index of 78.5.The five-county Southeastern Pennsylvania area increased 7.8% to an index of 90.7 from an upwardly revised index of 84.2 in September. Center City saw the largest increase in the October index at 31.6%. Philadelphia County led the five-county Southeastern Pennsylvania region with a 15.6% increase in activity from the revised September index, followed by Bucks County at 11.5% and Montgomery County increasing 7.3%. Both Chester and Delaware saw a decrease in pending home sales, after showing an increase in last month’s index.
The combined Delaware areas of New Castle and Kent Counties increased 29.1% in the October index, after seeing an 11.4% decrease in pending homes sales in the September index. The five-county Southern New Jersey region saw a 4.7% growth in real-estate activity after two-consecutive decreases, moving from 70.3 in the revised September index to 73.6 in October. Four out of the five counties saw more than a seven percent increase, while Camden County fell for the third-consecutive month at 3.9%.
“The Greater Philadelphia Market saw some positive signs in October’s index and matches the regional index reported by the National Association of Realtors®,” said Steve Storti, senior vice president of marketing for Prudential Fox & Roach. “We’ll see how the numbers compare in November and December as the market winds down for the 2007 season.”
Compared to October findings reported by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index, the Greater Philadelphia region fell between the Northeast and National indices. The NAR index showed a 16% increase in pending sales in the Northeast and a 0.6% increase nationally. In September, the NAR index indicated a 10.1% decrease in pending sales in the Northeast and 0.2% decrease nationwide.
While real estate activity grew, the Greater Philadelphia region showed a 14.2% decrease in activity from the same time period last year, moving from an index of 100 in 2006 to 85.7 in October 2007. The Pennsylvania index is 14% below a year ago, New Jersey is down 18% and Delaware is 7.3% below last year’s index.
Based on contracts signed in October, the index monitors real estate market activity by tracking pending sales of homes reported to the TREND® Multiple Listing Service, the region’s primary real estate reporting tool for 32,000 real estate professionals. A sale is listed as ‘pending’ when a contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed. Sales are typically finalized within one or two months of signing. An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2002. The Prudential Fox & Roach, REALTORS HomExpert Pending Home Sales Index is modeled after the national index created by the National Association of Realtors®, which is available at www.Realtor.org.
The following is the October 2007 HomExpert Pending Home Sales Index for the Greater Philadelphia region:
For more information, visit www.prufoxroach.com.
