- Prior month 4.02M revised to 4.03M
- existing home sales 4.00M annualized
- existing home sales % change comes in at -0.7%
- 2.9 months of supply
- median existing home sales price increase 1.3% from a year ago to 359,000
- inventory of unsold homes is at 980,000 at the end of January
- 12th straight month decline
- First-time buyers were responsible for 31% of sales in January, identical to December but up from 27% in January 2022
- All-cash sales accounted for 29% of transactions in January, up from 28% in December and 27% in January 2022.
- Distressed sales5 – foreclosures and short sales – represented 1% of sales in January, identical to last month and one year ago
- According to Freddie Mac, the 30 year fix rate mortgage averaged 6.32% as of February 16. That’s up from 6.12% from the previous week and 3.92% one year ago.
- Northeast-3.8% and is down -35.9% since January 2022. The median price is $383,000 up 0.3% from the previous year
- Midwest fell -5% and is down -33.3% from a year ago. The median price came in at $252,300 up 2.7%
- South Rose +1.1% and is down -36.6% from prior year. The median price came in at 332,500 and increase of 3.4% from a year ago
- West rose 2.9% but is down 42.4% from the previous year. The median price in the West came in at 525,200 down 4.6% from 2022
The sales paces is lower than the pandemic low.
The national Association of realtors chief economists Yun comments:
“Home sales are bottoming out. Prices vary depending on a market’s affordability, with lower-priced regions witnessing modest growth and more expensive regions experiencing declines.”
He adds:
“Inventory remains low, but buyers are beginning to have better negotiating power. Homes sitting on the market for more than 60 days can be purchased for around 10% less than the original list price.”
Mortgage rates have been rising of late with the rise in rates. The 10 year yield in the US is up to 3.938% which is the highest level since November 2022.