Realtor coaching students…promising signs for  the housing market. Here is a report from bizjournals. Two crucial element not included in this report are:

1) How many of the sales were short sales and REOs.

2) Even with this slight increase in sales there is still nearly a years worth of unsold homes.

Here is the report….

An index that measures pending home sales nationally rose 5.3 percent from May to June, a sign that the housing market could improve at the end of the year, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The index, which is based on sales contracts signed in June, was 89, a 5.3 percent increase over the previous month.

“The rise in pending home sales was broad-based with all four regions showing gains,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “This is welcome news because a rise in contract activity is necessary for an overall housing recovery. With a tax credit now available to first-time home buyers, increases in home sales could be sustained with the momentum carrying into 2009.”

Even with the uptick in pending contracts from month to month, the index is 12.3 percent below where it stood in June 2007, an indication of how much the market has slowed.

With roughly 2.5 million first-time home buyers taking advantage of the temporary federal tax credit, existing-home sales are likely to rise 7 percent nationally to 5.51 million in 2009 from a expected total of 5.15 million this year.

Home prices are projected to increase 3 to 6 percent next year.

New-home sales are forecast to drop 8.8 percent to 464,000 in 2009 from 509,000 this year. Housing starts, including multifamily units, should fall 17.2 percent next year to 795,000 from 960,000 in 2008.