Pending Home Sales gain for 12th straight month:

The August Pending Home Sales report was just released this morning by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and it showed a year-over-year gain of 6.2% and marks the 12th consecutive month of year-over-year gains.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says even with the modest decline in contract signings, demand continues to outpace housing supply and elevate price growth in numerous markets. "Pending sales have leveled off since mid–summer, with buyers being bounded by rising prices and few available and affordable properties within their budget," he said. "Even with existing–housing supply barely budging all summer and no relief coming from new construction, contract activity is still higher than earlier this year and a year ago."

According to Yun, sales in the coming months should be able to roughly maintain their current pace.

The national median existing–home price is expected to increase 5.8 percent in 2015 to $220,300. Yun forecasts total existing–home sales this year to increase 7.0 percent to around 5.28 million, about 25 percent below the prior peak set in 2005 (7.08 million).

The bottom line is that the overall housing market is still trending very strongly, hampered only by a shortage of quality inventory in the specific price points.