US pending home sales rise 0.7% in May

US pending home sales increased 0.7% month-on-month in May, according to the National Association of Realtors, breaking a six-month spell of declines.

However, pending home sales, a measure of signed contracts on existing homes, were still down 13.6% year-on-year amid rising mortgage rates since the beginning of 2022, with the average on the 30-year fixed mortgage hitting a high of 5.64% in the first week of May before pulling back to 5.25%.

Regionally, pending home sales jumped 15.4% month-on-month in the Northeast but were down 11.9% year-on-year, while in the Midwest sales fell 1.7% for the month and 8.8% from the same time a year earlier.

In the South, sales rose 0.2% month-on-month and were 13.8% lower year-on-year, while in the West, sales fell the hardest down 5.0% month-on-month and 19.8% year-on-year.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com