Pending home sales fall 1.2%

Wichita seems to be bucking a national slowdown in residential housing sales, according to figures from some of the city's biggest brokerages.

Pending home sales slipped by 1.2 percent nationally in August, according to the National Association of Realtors, with the group's Pending Home Sales Index down 3.7 percent in the Midwest.

But a couple of the city's largest brokers say they're generally pleased with the level of residential business in a traditionally tough period.

Gary Walker of J.P. Weigand & Sons and John McKenzie of Coldwell Banker Plaza say business remains good.

New sales at Weigand were up 16 percent in volume and 24 percent in units over August 2010, Walker said.

"I don't have the new sales report yet for contracts written in September, but I'm not expecting any big shocks up or down," Walker said.

McKenzie said the Wichita market traditionally slows in late August and September as school resumes and stays relatively slow throughout the winter sports season.

"However, new activity is starting to be generated with lower-than-normal interest rates and more cash transactions ... than in recent memory," he said.

McKenzie said he sees more real estate investors in the market than usual, which means more business.

"I look for brisk activity in the resale market for the rest of this year," he said. "Investors are looking to complete their purchases before the end of this tax year."

Nationally, sales remain higher than August 2010, when the market fell into the post-tax-credit doldrums after a big first six months of sales driven by the federal incentives.

"I don't know that we can read a lot into the numbers," said Walt Molony, a spokesman for NAR. "The numbers have moved rather narrowly for quite some time. The market is clearly underperforming."

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a statement that credit remains difficult, even for qualified buyers.

"We continue to experience a pattern in which financially qualified home buyers, willing to stay well within their means, are being denied credit — a factor in elevated levels of contract failures," he said.

Yun said that with population and minor job growth, rent increases and some investment growth, existing-home sales should be running about 600,000 units higher annually then they are.

"The unnecessarily restrictive mortgage underwriting standards are attenuating the housing recovery and are a risk factor for the overall economy," he said.