Denver area bucks slide in pending home sales

Denver area bucks slide in pending home sales
By Courtney Schlisserman
Bloomberg News
Posted: 03/05/2010 01:00:00 AM MST
Updated: 03/05/2010 01:17:17 AM MST

(Special to The Denver Post)

WASHINGTON — The number of contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in January, showing that the extension of a tax credit is sparking little interest.

The index of purchase agreements, or pending home sales, fell 7.6 percent after a revised 0.8 percent increase in December, the National Association of Realtors announced in Washington. In November, the measure slumped a record 13.7 percent.

However, pending home sales in the Denver area were up 21.9 percent to 3,690 in January, compared with 3,028 during the prior month, according to previously released data.

Nationally, snowstorms in February probably limited contract signings and sales that month as well, the group said.

The renewal of a government incentive to first-time buyers, originally due to expire at the end of November, and its expansion to include current owners has yet to lure buyers back into the market after helping to boost sales last year. A lack of jobs and mounting foreclosures have depressed confidence, indicating that housing will take time to rebound.

The original deadline for the credit "clearly pulled demand forward, and there has been a substantial payback," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, N.C. "The housing recovery is going to be very, very slow."

Economists forecast the gauge would increase 1 percent in January after a previously reported 1 percent gain in December, according to the median of 40 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from a drop of 4.2 percent to an increase of 4 percent.

Denver Post staff writer Margaret Jackson contributed to this report.

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