Pending home sales in California rose from July to August, but a continuing shortage of inventory kept the number lower than in August of 2011, the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors said Monday.
C.A.R.'s Pending Home Sales Index rose 2.7 percent from a revised 115.8 in July to 118.9 in August, based on signed contracts, the organization said a statement.
But pending sales were down 2 percent from the 121.4 index recorded in August 2011, reversing a 15-month trend of higher pending sales than the previous year.
"While August's pending sales were higher than July, the pending sales decline from last year is not a surprise, as we started to see a gradual slowdown in the year-to-year change over the past five months, primarily due to a dearth of available homes," said C.A.R. President LeFrancis Arnold.
