Sales are up... if you know what you are doing!

As detailed in a recent CNN story,

Regional breakdown: Pending home sales across all regions were down from October to November. But sales in the West were actually up significantly from November 2007.

The pending home sales index fell 7.2% to 63.2 in the Northeast and stood 14.6% below its November 2007 levels. In the Midwest, the index slipped 6.7% to 74.2 and was down 10.1% year-over-year. In the South month-to-month losses were more modest, with the pending home sales index down 2.2% to 85.3, but it was off 12.7% from a year ago.

In the West, however, while the index was down 2.4% in the month to 101.2, pending sales jumped 19.3% from November 2007. That sales increase is due to the dramatic drop in home prices in states like California, Arizona and Nevada, which has spurred new deals, according to Larson.

"You are having a lot of foreclosures in those three states and banks are just cutting the prices until those homes sell," added Newport.