Pending home sales declined 1.3% to a reading of 89.7 in July from a revised 90.9 in June, according to a report released Monday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters predicted a 1.3% decrease for the index.
The June index was originally reported as a 2.4% increase to 90.9.
Year-over-year the pending homes sales index is up 14.4% from last July, when the index was 78.4.
Regionally, pending sales were mostly lower. The Northeast saw a 2.0% decrease to 67.5, while sales decreased 0.8% in the Midwest to 79.1, and sales fell 4.8% to 94.4 in the South. But sales climbed 3.6% to 110.8 in the West.
“Looking at pending home sales over a longer span, contract activity over the past three months is fairly comparable to the first three months of the year, and well above the low seen in April,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. “The underlying factors for improving sales are developing, such as rising rents, record high affordability conditions and investors buying real estate as a future inflation hedge. It is now a question of lending standards and consumers having the necessary confidence to enter the market."
