I asked a San Diego realtor why pendings are so high.
“Almost 100% due to lazy agents never posting them sold. Biggest offenders are out-of-town agents who come here for one sale, and builders, in particular Bressi Ranch.
Bressi Ranch is showing 11 pending, but 8 have already closed escrow. Two examples of what they have to hide:
In September 2005 they closed a house for $936,000 that was listed for $1,125,000.
In May 2006 they closed a house for $900,000 that was listed at $1,079,000. Both still show pending.
I can see why they want to disguise those sales as long as possible.
They aren’t putting everything on the MLS either, if they did it would be disastrous. From what I can tell they have a lot of houses not selling.”