The National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales Index dipped 1.2 percent in August but remained 7.7 percent above the previous year’s levels. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said the decline reflects an uneven market and, based on improving fundamentals, sales should be higher. Yun said we need to remove the road blocks to the housing recovery for people who are trying to take advantage of excellent affordability conditions. Pending home sales were above year ago levels in all regions and up month-over-month in the South, where the index rose 2.6 percent. More here.