After reports of sliding home sales and prices last week, the National Association of Realtors reports this week that pending home sales are up.

The trade group reports that pending sales, based on purchase and sales contracts signed in March, increased in three out of four regions, but fell in the Northeast.

Sales in many areas are increasing because of bank-owned property sales. In some places, distressed property sales make up as much 40 percent of transactions.

That hasn’t been the case in Massachusetts, where about 10 percent of single-family home sales involve a bank-owned property. 

There seem to be some signs that foreclosure activity is moderating in Massachusetts. The Warren Group will be releasing a report later this week showing that the number of Bay State foreclosure deeds and petitions to foreclose has declined from last year.

Despite these positive signs, foreclosure petitions have been steadily rising for five consecutive months.

And foreclosure activity may pick up now that several large lenders, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, have ended foreclosure moratoriums that they had in place.