vs Last Month
+1.4 pts
First positive month-over-month print in three.
PHSI · Forward Housing Demand
Today's Pending Home Sales
73.2
+1.4 pts
vs. last month (0.0)
Past 12 months
70.5 – 78.4
2001 Baseline100.0
vs Last Year-2.1
2005 Peak142.8
Pending sales ticked up to 73.2 after a soft spring — the first month-over-month positive print in three. With closings tracking 4–8 weeks behind, expect existing-home-sales data to firm up slightly in July.
Historical trend
Monthly index, seasonally adjusted.
Source: NAR Pending Home Sales Index (Jan 2001 = 100)
The long view: since 2001
From the bubble peak at 142 to today's 73.
Peak 142.8 · Apr 2005
Trough 68.7 · Apr 2020
Today 73.2 · May 29, 2026
How today stacks up
vs Last Year
−2.1 pts
Still softer YoY as elevated rates dampen contract activity.
5-Year Average
86.5
Includes pandemic-era spike. Today is 13 pts below.
All-Time Range
68.7–142.8
Today sits in the lower quartile of the 25-year range.
Use this number
Tools for the home transaction.
About Pending Home Sales
The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) tracks contracts signed but not yet closed on existing single-family homes, condos, and co-ops. The National Association of Realtors compiles it from a representative sample of 20% of all U.S. transactions and indexes it so that Jan 2001 = 100. Today's 73.2 means current pending-sale activity is running about 27% below that 2001 baseline.
Why it's a leading indicator
A home goes "pending" when buyer and seller sign a purchase agreement. It becomes a "closing" 4–8 weeks later when the deal funds. That gap makes pending sales a one-to-two month preview of existing-home-sales data — when pending sales weaken, existing sales follow shortly after. Economists and housing analysts watch this number closely for early evidence of buyer-demand shifts before the headline closing data confirms them.
Reading today's number
The index peaked at 142.8 in April 2005 at the bubble's height and bottomed at 68.7 in April 2020 when COVID lockdowns froze the market. Today's 73.2 sits near the recent 2022–25 trough, reflecting the dampening effect of 6%+ mortgage rates on buyer activity. Any sustained move back above 80 would suggest demand is rebuilding faster than rates would predict — a meaningful signal for the broader housing market.
Related trackers
Other live numbers that move with — or against — this one.
Frequently asked
What this number means, and what it doesn't.
A pending sale is a contract signed (buyer and seller agreed). An existing sale is a closed transaction (money exchanged hands). Pending leads existing by about 4–8 weeks. About 5–10% of pending contracts fall through before closing — typically due to financing or inspection issues.
NAR set the index baseline at the average level of 2001 contract activity. So 100 = "average month in 2001." Today's 73.2 means contract activity is 26.8% below that baseline. The index lets you compare different months and years on a common scale without dealing with raw transaction counts.
Housing represents about 17% of GDP through construction, brokerage, and related services. Pending sales are one of the earliest signals that interest-rate moves are filtering into actual household behavior. A persistent dip below 75 historically precedes broader economic weakness; a strong climb above 90 typically signals the housing cycle is firmly expanding.
NAR publishes the PHSI on the last Wednesday or Thursday of each month at 10:00 AM ET, covering the prior month's data. The release includes regional breakdowns (Northeast, Midwest, South, West) plus the national index. The exact schedule is at nar.realtor.
Yes, but unlike Census data, NAR rarely makes large revisions. Most revisions are 0.5–1.5 index points and don't change the directional story. A month's data is considered final after one subsequent monthly release.
Methodology
Source
Pulled from NAR · PHSI and cached on the EvvyTools server.
Update schedule
Refreshed automatically by our cron whenever the upstream source publishes a new value. Historical values are not revised after publication.
How we compute
Display value is the raw published number, unrounded. Comparison stats use the closest available reference date. We never edit the underlying data.