A gain in the number of Americans signing contracts to buy existing homes in February failed to make up for the ground lost a month earlier, a sign the U.S. housing market has yet to join the economic recovery, Bloomberg reported.

The index of pending home resales increased 2.1 percent after a 2.8 percent drop the prior month, according to figures the National Association of Realtors today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists called for little change.

Foreclosures are augmenting the surplus of distressed properties and causing prices to fall, leaving some Americans with bigger mortgages than their homes are worth. Faster job growth may be required to stabilize residential real estate, the weakest link in the economy.

Those numbers have people in the Greater Des Moines real estate and construction markets pointing out that, in general, the national numbers are skewed by markets that took the brunt of the drop in home sales.

To counter the perception that the national numbers reflect what is happening in Greater Des Moines, Creighton Cox, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Greater Des Moines, issued a news release saying that permits for new homes increased from 2009 to 2010 and that he expects a “strong number of starts in March and April.”

“Housing permits were up more than 25 percent from 2009 to 2010, and we expect another double-digit increase in 2011.”  Cox said. “The Des Moines market didn’t see the low levels that Florida, Arizona, Las Vegas and Atlanta saw.  Des Moines’ housing market has been stronger than the national market on all accounts since the bubble burst in 2006, which has resulted in a quicker recovery and a stronger current market.”