National pending home sales rose 1.8%, with Florida metros like Jacksonville and Miami posting strong gains, signaling steady demand and more closings ahead.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Pending home sales in February increased by 1.8% from the prior month and declined 0.8% year-over-year, according to the National Association of Realtors\u00ae Pending Home Sales report. The report provides the real estate ecosystem \u2013 including agents and homebuyers and sellers \u2013 with data on the level of home sales under contract.<\/p>\n
Month-over-month pending home sales rose in the Midwest, South and West, and declined in the Northeast. Year-over-year pending home sales rose in the South and West and declined in the Northeast and Midwest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe slight gain in pending contracts appears to be driven by improved affordability conditions. However, those conditions could reverse if higher oil prices lead to an uptick in mortgage rates,\u201d said NAR Chief Economist Dr. Lawrence Yun. \u201cThe Midwest \u2013 the most affordable region of the country \u2013 was the strongest performer in February. But the Northeast was held back by a combination of higher home prices and a shortage of supply.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor first-time homebuyers, purchasing a home is not a snap decision,\u201d Yun added. \u201cIt takes time to build credit, save for a down payment, and fulfill existing rental lease agreements. Still, there is sizable pent-up demand that could be released into the market. Although job gains have been sluggish in recent months, there are still 6 million more jobs in the country than in the pre-COVID period.\u201d<\/p>\n
February 2026 national pending home sales<\/p>\n
1.8% increase month-over-month
\n\t0.8% decrease year-over-year
\nFebruary 2026 regional pending home sales<\/p>\n
Northeast<\/p>\n
3.6% decrease month-over-month
\n\t12.1% decrease year-over-year<\/p>\n
Midwest<\/p>\n
4.6% increase month-over-month
\n\t0.1% decrease year-over-year<\/p>\n
South<\/p>\n
2.7% increase month-over-month
\n\t1.2% increase year-over-year<\/p>\n
West<\/p>\n
0.9% increase month-over-month
\n\t3.2% increase year-over-year<\/p>\n
At the local level, several markets posted notable year-over-year gains in pending home sales. Among the 50 largest metro areas, the following 10 markets posted the biggest annual increases in pending home sales, according to data from Realtor.com\u00ae Economics:<\/p>\n
San Diego\u2013Chula Vista\u2013Carlsbad, CA (+13.5%)
\n\tJacksonville, FL (+12.1%)
\n\tSan Jose\u2013Sunnyvale\u2013Santa Clara, CA (+10.6%)
\n\tDenver\u2013Aurora\u2013Centennial, CO (+10.5%)
\n\tMiami\u2013Fort Lauderdale\u2013West Palm Beach, FL (+10.0%)
\n\tPhoenix\u2013Mesa\u2013Chandler, AZ (+9.8%)
\n\tSacramento\u2013Roseville\u2013Folsom, CA (+9.3%)
\n\tKansas City, MO-KS (+8.7%)
\n\tAustin\u2013Round Rock\u2013San Marcos, TX (+8.1%)
\n\tOklahoma City, OK (+7.4%)<\/p>\n
The Pending Home Sales Index is a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing.<\/p>\n
Pending contracts are good early indicators of upcoming sales closings. However, the amount of time between pending contracts and completed sales is not identical for all home sales. Variations in the length of the process from pending contract to closed sale can be caused by issues such as buyer difficulties with obtaining mortgage financing, home inspection problems, or appraisal issues.<\/p>\n
The index is based on a sample that covers about 40% of multiple listing service data each month. In developing the model for the index, it was demonstrated that the level of monthly sales-contract activity parallels the level of closed existing-home sales in the following two months.<\/p>\n
An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, which was the first year to be examined. By coincidence, the volume of existing-home sales in 2001 fell within the range of 5.0 to 5.5 million, which is considered normal for the current U.S. population.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 National Association of Realtors\u00ae (NAR) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National pending home sales rose 1.8%, with Florida metros like Jacksonville and Miami posting strong gains, signaling steady…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-195989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}