A near-record low for then index that projects near-term home sales suggests borrowers in high-priced areas are struggling to finalize home purchases amid mortgage market troubles.

The National Association of Realtors announced on Wednesday that its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell 16.1 percent in July from a year ago and 12.2 percent from the prior month. July’s reading of 89.9 was the second-lowest ever for the index and its lowest since September 2001, when the economy was shocked by the terrorist attacks.

The pending home sales index is designed to predict sales levels over the following two months. A reading of 100 is equal to the average  level of pending sales activity in 2001, when the index began.

Stock markets slumped after the real estate data were released.

“Numbers like this should put to rest the belief that we’ve reached the bottom” in the housing market, said Joel Naroff, chief economist for Commerce Bancorp Inc. “There’s still a lot of pain that’s ahead of us.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Home Sales Market News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.