Pending home sales trended lower for the fifth straight month in January.  

Sellers OK’d 684 contracts, down 84 from December and 41 fewer than January last year.  

Pending sales are a leading indicator of housing activity based on signed contracts for existing single-family homes and condominium sales in the region monitored by the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors (NETAR) Home Sales Report. Since resales go under contract 30 to 60 days before they close, accepted contracts offer insight into the direction home sales will take.      

   

“Increasing mortgage rates, higher prices, and less inventory are pumping the brakes on the market,” NETAR President Rick Chantry said. “We saw three months of fewer closings in September, October, and November than a spike in December driven by a push to close as many deals as possible before the new year. January’s mid-month update shows a closings decline of 2.7% from January last year. That’s a little less than the range of the September – October slump.” 

There were 938 existing single-family homes on the market at the end of January. That gave the region 1.1 months of inventory.   

The typical home that closed last month was on the market for 56 days. That’s an increase of one day from December. The time on the market has been slowly increasing since June last year.  When homes spend more time on the market it signals demand is softening.