There was a glimmer of hope in housing data this week. Pending sales — signed contracts between buyers and sellers — rose in July, by 5.2 percent, beating expectations of a modest decline. Sales are still down by 19 percent compared with a year ago. But any sign of activity was a welcome relief because most potential buyers have been sidelined by an array of economic ills: unemployment, job insecurity, fear of further price declines or the inability to get a loan.

If only the uptick was sustainable. Willing buyers today are responding to low mortgage rates — recently 4.3 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage — and to prices they find fair. By one standard price measure, which compares the cost of renting and owning, homes are as affordable now as they were before the housing bubble. Other measures that compare home prices to household incomes show housing at its most affordable in decades. Together with seller concessions, those dynamics are driving the deals that get done in today’s tough market.

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