According to the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales are up by 0.5% from the month of December. NAR gathered this information from their Pending Home Sales Index (PHS), which is an indicator for housing activity that tracks signed real estate contracts in order to measure housing contract and sales activity.

The data they gathered uses both seasonally adjusted, as well as not seasonally adjusted data, in order to allow for the most accurate results. Their PHS Overview Chart clearly identifies their results.

Due to this information, the National Association of Realtors has forecasted existing home sales and price growth to moderate within the 2018 fiscal year. This is due to the new tax laws that are expected to impact high-cost housing markets.

What does this mean for realtors? Sell while the market is still high! NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun speculates that the rise in home sales is due to the current healthy jobs market, as well as an overall increase in wages. While this is wonderful news for the time being, Yun also predicts that consistent inventory shortages and a rise in home prices will cause sales activity to slow and gradually decrease throughout the year.

Therefore, it is better to act while the market is still hot! Traditionally, real estate has always been known as a risky game and real estate professionals must know when to make the easy bets – now is the time. Clients are more likely to sell now more than ever, especially due to the extreme increase on return on investments that have recently been released.
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Lawrence Yun states that, at the moment, “jobs are plentiful, wages are finally climbing, and the prospect of higher mortgage rates are perhaps encouraging more aspiring buyers to begin their search now.” Now is the time to take charge!

Seritage Growth Properties (NYSE: SRG) is making progress on its anticipated late-summer completion of a major renovation that will welcome new shops and restaurants to the East Colonial Drive area.
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Last year's removal of the Sears location at Orlando Fashion Square was the first step toward installing a 60,000-square-foot Floor & Decor location and a more than 40,000-square-foot Orchard Supply Hardware store as mall anchors. The demolition was followed up by the leveling of the Sears Auto Center, which left even more space for additional tenants.

Fast foreward about 10 months: The post-demolition debris field is now replaced by a brand new building measuring more than 110,000 square feet as heavy machinery moves earth for parking lot renovations and infrastructure improvements. Meanwhile, a new 17,127-square-foot parcel, to be erected on the former site of the Sears Auto Center, will house an Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse. See the photo gallery for a look at how things are shaping up.

New tenants will add jobs, as well as broaden the retail and restaurant choices for the neighboring Baldwin Park community and downtown Orlando.

The new construction may just be the beginning of major changes for the property as DeBartolo Development Co. — the company behind the $100 million Mills Park mixed-use project — is under contract to buy the 44-year-old Orlando Fashion Square mall. The sale and new high-profile tenants are a positive turn for the long-struggling mall, which has changed hands four times since 2004 and, according to Orange County records, has an assessed value of nearly $41 million.