May 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 May fell 0.4 percent from last month and dropped 3.0 percent from last year. May’s existing-home sales reached 5.43 million seasonally adjusted annual rate.
  • The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $264,800 in May, up 4.9 percent from a year ago. This marks the 75th consecutive month of year-over-year gains.
  • Regionally, three of the four regions showed growth in prices from a year ago, with the Northeast being the only region with a decline of 1.8 percent. The West led all regions with a gain of 7.2 percent. The South had a gain of 4.5 percent followed by the Midwest with the smallest gain of 4.2 percent from May 2017.

  • May’s inventory figures are up 2.8 percent from last month to 1.85 million homes for sale. However, compared with May of 2017, fewer homes are available, with inventory down 6.1 percent, marking 36 months of year-over-year declines. It will take 4.1 months to move the current level of inventory at the current sales pace. Transactions are moving faster and it takes approximately 26 days for a home to go from listing to a contract in the current housing market, down from 27 days a year ago.

  • From April, three of the four regions experienced declines in sales. The Midwest had the biggest decline of 2.3 percent followed by the West with a drop of 0.8 percent. The South had the smallest dip and fell 0.4 percent.
  • Three of the four regions showed declines in sales from a year ago. The Northeast had the biggest drop in sales of 11.7 percent. The West had a decline of 4.1 percent followed by the Midwest with a decline of 2.3 percent. The South was flat showing no change. The South led all regions in percentage of national sales, accounting for 42.7 percent of the total, while the Northeast had the smallest share at 12.5 percent.

  • In May, single-family sales declined 0.6 percent and condominiums sales rose 1.6 percent compared to last month. Single-family home sales fell 3.0 percent and condominium sales were down 3.1 compared to a year ago. Both single-family and condominiums had an increase in price with single-family up 5.2 percent at $267,500 and condominiums up 2.5 percent at $245,500 from May 2017.

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