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By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Signed sales contracts on existing homes in the United States rose for the ninth straight month in October, a real estate industry group reported Tuesday.

The pending home sales index rose a seasonally adjusted 3.7% in October from September, the National Association of Realtors reported. The index is up 31.8% compared with last October.

The index rose 6% in September.
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The index tracks sales contracts on pre-owned homes. Typically, it takes a month or two after the contract is signed for the sale to close. At that point, the sale is booked in the NAR's existing-home sales report.

The pending-home sales index has been running ahead of the existing-home sales figures, likely because tight credit conditions and tougher rules on appraisals are killing some deals before they close. Compared with a year ago, existing-home sales are up 23% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million.

The federal government's first-time home-buyer tax credit could have led to more deals in October. The tax credit has now been extended, but buyers in October thought it would expire on Nov. 30.

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the real estate advocacy and lobbying group, said the increase in pending home sales wasn't entirely due to the tax credit. "Based on the demographics of our growing population, existing-home sales should be in the range of 5.5 million to 6.0 million annually," he said.

For 2010, the real estate agents expect sales of existing homes to rise 10.8% to 5.7 million compared with 5.15 million in 2009. New-home sales are projected to rise 42% in 2010 to 561,000 from 394,000 in 2009. Home prices are expected to rise about 4%, according to Yun's forecast.

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This week on the Success of Real Estate Radio we want to take the time out to give back to the community, and we have the brain behind an event that we believe will take Atlanta by storm! We have back again to visit us Ms. Tracey Powell from the Atlanta Development Authority presenting a "Day Of Hope!" The Atlanta Development Authority is an integral part of the city of Atlanta. As the economic arm of the city of Atlanta, ADA has an awesome responsibility, and we can change lives for the better. As ADA’s Housing Finance Single Family Mortgage Specialist, I see how ADA makes a difference in people’s lives each and every day by issuing downpayment assistance to families and individuals purchasing homes in the Atlanta city limits. In some instances, we actually build personal relationships with the borrowers, our new city of Atlanta homeowners. We hear from the lenders and realtors, the non-profit homeownership educators, inspectors and attorney about how these programs are creating opportunities for people to change their lives. People are realizing the American Dream of homeownership, even in these tumultuous times. However, there are so many others that are unaware of the opportunities that are available and within their reach. So many people have given up on their dreams – it is time to reawaken those dreams through the power of knowledge. That is why we have created A Day of Hope.