Pending Home Sales Rebound 3.5% in November

WASHINGTON (TheStreet) -- Pending home sales rose 3.5% in November, according to a National Association of Realtors report released Thursday morning.

An index that measures the number of contracts to buy previously owned homes in the U.S. rose 3.5% in November month-over-month but remain 5% below year-earlier levels.

Economists had expected the data to fall 3% after pending home sales rebounded 10.4% in October. October's rate of pending home sales came in far better than expected but remained 20.5% lower than in the year-earlier month.

Pending home sales are viewed as an indicator of future home sales.

>> 10 Top Buy-Rated Real Estate Stocks for 2011

Sales of newly built homes rose 5.5% in November. Despite the uptick, the figure came in slightly below expectations and were 21.2% below year-earlier levels.

The government data followed a report on Wednesday from the National Association of Realtors, which showed that sales of previously occupied homes rose 5.6% in November to a better-than-expected seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million units.

"Continuing gains in home sales are encouraging, and the positive impact of steady job creation will more than trump some negative impact from a modest rise in mortgage interest rates, which remain historically favorable," said National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun, commenting on existing-home sales, indicating he is hopeful about the housing market in 2011.

>> Homebuilder Stocks: Behind the Numbers