January 2018 Existing-Home Sales

Posted February 24, 2018

NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this January fell 3.2 percent from last month and dipped 4.8 percent from last year. January’s existing home sales reached 5.3 million seasonally adjusted annual rate.
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $240,500 in January, up 5.8 percent from a year ago. This marks the 71st consecutive month of year over year gains.
Regionally, all four regions showed growth in prices from a year ago, with the West leading all regions with an incline of 8.8 percent. The Midwest had a gain of 8.7 percent followed by the Northeast with a gain of 6.8 percent. The South had the smallest gain of 4.3 percent from January 2016.

January’s inventory figures are up 4.1 percent from last month to 1.52 million homes for sale. Fewer homes available with inventory down 9.5 percent from a year ago, marking 32 months of year over year declines. It will take 3.4 months to move the current level of inventory at the current sales pace. Transactions are moving faster and it takes approximately 42 days for a home to go from listing to a contract in the current housing market, down from 50 days a year ago.

From December, all four regions experienced declines in sales. The Midwest had the biggest decline of 6.0 percent followed by the West with a drop of 5.0 percent. The Northeast dipped 1.4 percent followed by the South which had the smallest drop of 1.3 percent.
All four regions showed a decline in sales from a year ago. The South had the smallest drop in sales of 1.3 percent. The Midwest had a decline of 3.8 percent followed by the Northeast, which fell 7.6 percent. The West had the biggest dip of 9.5 percent. The South led all regions in percentage of national sales, accounting for 42 percent of the total, while the Northeast had the smallest share at 13.6 percent.

In January, single-family sales decreased 3.8 percent and condominiums sales rose 1.6 percent compared to last month. Single-family home sales fell 4.8 percent and condominium sales were down 4.6 percent compared to a year ago. Both single-family and condominiums had an increase in price with single-family up 5.7 percent at $241,700 and condominiums up 7.1 percent at $231,600 from January 2016.

admin