Regionally, pending sales were down across the board on both a monthly and an annual basis, the National Association of REALTORS® said. 

Among the top upgrades: large showers.

Total housing inventory at the end of August was 1.11 million units, up 3.7% from July but down 14.6% on a year-over-year basis, the National Association of REALTORS® said. 

Sidelined homebuyers can breathe a sigh of relief. According to Realtor.com, the best week of the year to buy a home is still ahead of us.

The median area for a new single-family home fell to 2,191 square feet in the second quarter — the lowest recorded size since 2010.

CoreLogic expects prices to continue to grow through next year, albeit at a more traditional pace than in the height of the pandemic. 

Those looking to buy a house will be paying a premium as inventory continues to be an issue.

Eighteen percent of millennials — approximately one in five — believe they will never become a homeowner, according to a recent survey from Redfin.

Pending transactions were in negative territory for most of this year, so the recent increases could bode well for future activity. 

A fifth consecutive month of increases in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index suggests the housing market recovery that began earlier this year is likely to continue. 

Two weeks after housing inventory turned negative, home prices posted a healthy increase, MarketNsight said. 

First-timers made up 45% of buyers in 2022 and 37% in 2021.

High mortgage rates and limited inventory continued to weigh on sales activity, National Association of REALTORS®Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. 

Single-family home permits and completions, meanwhile, also rose, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

Of survey respondents who made a wedding registry in the past two years, 85% said they would have preferred to receive money they could have used towards a down payment, mortgage payment or other associated homebuying costs.

The industry group issued its housing-market forecast along with its monthly Pending Home Sales Index for June.