May contracts for previously owned homes up 13.4 percent from 2010

Sales contracts for previously owned U.S. homes climbed 13.4 percent in May from levels of the same month a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

It was the first year-over-year gain since April 2010, the final month in which home buyers could sign contracts to qualify for the federal tax credit.

Contracts - also known as pending home sales, because the deals close one or two months after they are signed - have increased nationally in seven of the last 11 months but have been below year-before numbers in every case.

The eight-county Philadelphia region experienced an even heftier year-over-year increase, 33.1 percent, according to Prudential Fox & Roach's HomExpert Market Report. That represented 3,930 contracts last month vs. 2,952 in May 2010, when the tax credit's end removed urgency from home-buying.

Still, contracts and actual home sales are far below the levels of previous years. In May 2009, 3,895 contracts were signed in the region, HomExpert data show; 4,751 were signed in the same month of 2008.

August 2007, the last month of the housing boom in the Philadelphia area, saw 6,499 sales. By August of last year, sales had fallen to almost half that, 3,382.

The Realtors' association attributed the nationwide increase in pending sales to the spring market - traditionally the prime home-selling period of the year. In this region, individual Realtors cited the same reason for the big boost, but there was no consensus whether it would last.

The spring market of 2007 saw nearly 20,000 homes sold. Sales this spring, with June still to be calculated, have reached 9,000 homes, HomExpert data show.

So far in June, said Noelle Barbone, office manager at Weichert Realtors in Media, contracts in the Philadelphia region are up 25 percent over the same month in 2010.

"In my office, we are up 79 percent over June 2010," Barbone said. "I am very optimistic for the remainder of the year."

Art Herling, regional vice president of Long & Foster Real Estate, said March, April, and May were identical in higher pending sales, with May "significantly better" than the same month in 2010.

"We are waiting on June, but it will be off 2010 a little," Herling said. Activity in the price range under $350,000 has been good, with a few $1 million-plus sales recently, he added.