Boosted by low mortgage rates, US existing home sales, released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), rose to 17-month high in August.
Total existing home sales, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, climbed +1.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.49 million in August, the largest gain since March 2018.
On a year-over-year basis, sales were +2.6% up than a year ago.
US existing homes-for-sale stayed on the market for an average of 31 days in August, up from 29 days both last month and a year ago. In August, 49% of homes sold were on the market for less than a month.
The August median sales price of all existing homes was US$278,200, up +4.7% from a year ago, representing the 90th consecutive month of year-over-year increases. The median existing condominium/co-op price of US$257,600 in August was up +5.2% from a year ago.
Year-to-date sales are down about -2.6% compared to the same period in 2018, said Calculated Risk Friday. On an annual basis, that would put sales around 5.20 million in 2019.
US existing home sales slumped at the end of 2018 and in January 2019 due to higher mortgage rates, the stock market selloff, and fears of an economic slowdown. According to the NAR, inventory decreased to 1.86 million in August from 1.90 million in July. (Note: Months-of-supply is based on the seasonally adjusted sales and not seasonally adjusted inventory.)
This last graph shows the year-over-year (YoY) change in reported existing home inventory and months-of-supply. Since inventory is not seasonally adjusted, it really helps to look at the YoY change, according to Calculated Risk.
