India, April 30 -- Partly reflecting a substantial increase in the South, the National Association of Realtors released a report on Wednesday showing an unexpected spike by pending home sales in the U.S. in the month of March.
NAR said its pending home sales index surged by 6.1 percent to 76.5 in March after jumping by 2.1 percent to a revised to 72.1 in February. Economists had expected pending home sales to dip by 0.3 percent.
A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
The unexpected increase came as pending home sales in the South soared by 9.8 percent. Pending home sales in the Midwest and West also shot up by 4.9 percent and 4.8 perce...