By Xavier Fontdegloria

The number of houses going under contract in the U.S. declined in June after rising the previous month, data from the National Association of Realtors showed Thursday. Here are the report's main takeaways:

--The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings, decreased 1.9% to 112.8 in June compared with the previous month.

--Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected the indicator to increase by 0.5% on month.

--Pending home sales were down 1.9% in June compared with the same month a year earlier.

--"Pending sales have seesawed since January, indicating a turning point for the market," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. The moderate slowdown in sales is largely due to the spike in home prices, he said. "Buyers are still interested and want to own a home, but record-high home prices are causing some to retreat," he said.

--Month-over-month transactions increased slightly in the Midwest and the Northeast, by 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively. However, activity fell in the South and the West, with monthly declines of 3% and 3.8%, respectively.

Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com

-0- 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 29, 2021 10:14 ET (14:14 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.