August 2018 Existing-Home Sales

 In Economist Commentaries, existing home price, Existing Home Sales, Inventory, Regional Data
  • NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this August was steady yet flat from last month, and dropped 1.5 percent from last year. August’s existing-home sales maintained a 5.34 million seasonally adjusted annual rate.
  • The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $264,800 in August, up 4.6 percent from a year ago. This marks the 78th consecutive month of year-over-year gains.
  • Regionally, all four regions showed growth in prices from a year ago, with the West having the biggest advance of 4.8 percent. The Midwest had a gain of 3.4 percent followed by the South with an increase of 3.2 percent. The Northeast had the smallest gain of 2.6 percent from August 2017.

  • August’s inventory figures are also flat from last month to 1.92 million homes for sale. Compared with August of 2017, there was a 2.7 percent increase in inventory levels. It will take 4.3 months to move the current level of inventory at the current sales pace. It takes approximately 29 days for a home to go from listing to a contract in the current housing market, down from 30 days a year ago.

  • From July 2018, two of the four regions experienced declines in sales. The West had the biggest decline of 5.9 percent followed by the South with a dip in sales of 0.4 percent. The Northeast had the largest gain of 7.6 percent followed by the Midwest that had an incline in sales of 2.4 percent.
  • Three of the four regions showed declines in sales from a year ago. The West had the biggest drop in sales of 7.4 percent. The Northeast had a decline of 2.7 percent followed by the Midwest with a decline of 0.8 percent. The South had the only incline in sales of 1.8 percent. The South led all regions in percentage of national sales, accounting for 41.8 percent of the total, while the Northeast had the smallest share at 13.3 percent.

  • In August, single-family and condominiums sales were unchanged compared to last month. Single-family home sales fell 1.0 percent and condominium sales were down 4.8 compared to a year ago. Both single-family and condominiums had an increase in price with single-family up 4.9 percent at $267,300 and condominiums up 2.0 percent at $244,500 from August 2017.

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