Pending home sales climb in February

Pending home sales figures were just released by the National Association of Realtors. They showed some modest improvement, with sales up 2.1% in February compared to expectations for an unchanged reading. Transactions rose 2.7% in the South, 4% in the Midwest and 7% in the West, but fell 10.9% in the Northeast. At the same time, sales were still down more than 9% from a year earlier, underscoring the fact that housing continues to struggle.