4. Weekly HAR Market Stat The week left yet another trail of evidence leading back to a housing market on the mend. This time, the encouraging signs were even less clandestine. Nationally, both new and existing home sales enjoyed improvements. Even some December numbers were upwardly revised. New home sales have real and noticeable impacts on GDP, thus generating jobs and driving down unemployment. The overall bias for the entire U.S. is firmly toward balance. Locally, market activity was mostly positive. Spring will still be the major tell. In the Houston region, for the week ending February 19: • New Listings decreased 12.2% to 1,961 • Pending Sales increased 36.8% to 1,518 • Closed Sales decreased 10.1% to 849