NEW YORK, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. housing market accelerated for the fourth consecutive month in November, with a widely followed indicator of pending home sales from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) gaining 2.2 percent over October.
"Those gains contributed to a 6.9 percent year-over-year improvement in pending transactions," noted The Washington Post on Monday. Home buyers appear to have grown accustomed to stubbornly high mortgage rates, as they are buying new homes at a steady clip across the United States, said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.
"Consumers appeared to have recalibrated expectations regarding mortgage rates and are taking advantage of more available inventory," Yun said in a statement.
The NAR's pending home sales index is a forward-looking measure based on contract signings and benchmarked against the level of contract activity in 2001. A reported indicator of 100 would mean the level of contract activity is equal to that of 2001; the number reported for November came in at 79.
