US Sees Pending Home Sales Decline...Not So For Bloomington

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in January, fell 7.7 percent to 80.4 from a downwardly revised reading of 87.1 in December, according to NAR's latest report.

Breakdown By Region

Here's how the PHSI fared across the country:

• Northeast: dropped 12.7 percent to 57.8 in January and is 19.7 percent below a year ago.
• Midwest: declined 9.2 percent to 72.6 and is 13.8 percent below January 2008.
• South: fell 11.9 percent to 82.2 in January and is 9.1 percent below a year ago.
• West: rose 2.4 percent to 103.6 and is 13.5 percent higher than January 2008.

(source: NAR)

How did Bloomington do?

Bloomington fared much better. Instead of the 7.7% decrease noted at the beginning of this article, Bloomington had an increase of 15.7% in pending sales during January '09, up from December '08
(Source: BBoR MLS)