A jump in the sale of pre-owned homes last month in the West led an overall national gain. In the Northeast, however, there was a significant slump amid brutal weather conditions.
During February, the sale of 319,000 existing U.S. homes was completed. The total reflects the sale of single family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-operatives.
Last month’s real estate activity brought
to 632,000 the number of existing home sales that have closed during the first two months of this year.
The National Association of Realtors released the data on Wednesday.
Applying seasonal
seasonal adjustments to the sales statistics, the annual rate of existing home sales came to 5.54 million, improving 3 percent from January and a percent better than February 2017.
Genworth Mortgage Insurance Chief Economist Tian Liu said in a written statement that last month’s activity reflects contracts signed in January.
“Rising rates will likely result in some volatility in sales in the coming months as potential homebuyers digested the impact of rising interest rates,” Liu said. “We are encouraged by recent readings of mortgage applications, which point to a healthy start to the spring selling season. But we believe the high demand from potential buyers will likely result in larger price gains than in sales growth.”
Helping along the month-over-month increase were home sales in the West, which at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.27 million were up from the prior month by more than 11 percent — the most of any region. Sales in the South rose 7 percent to 2.41 million.
“The very healthy U.S. economy and labor market are creating a sizeable interest in buying a home in early 2018,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun commented in an accompanying statement. “However, even as seasonal inventory gains helped boost sales last month, home prices — especially in the West — shot up considerably.
“Affordability continues to be a pressing issue because new and existing housing supply is still severely subpar.”
A 2 percent drop in the Midwest left the seasonally adjusted annual rate at 1.22 million, while a more than 12 percent tumble in the Northeast left the rate there at just 0.64 million. The slump in the Northeast came as the region has been pummeled by multiple nor’easter snow storms so far this season.
The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of just single-family U.S. homes was 4.96 million last month.
At the conclusion of February 2018, there was an inventory of 1.59 million existing U.S. homes for sale. That left the supply at 3.4 months.
Average time on the market was 37 days — four days less than a month earlier and 45 days faster than a year earlier.
First-time buyer share was 29 percent,
while all-cash share was 24 percent, and distressed sales share was 4 percent.
Last month’s median sales price was $241,700, up 6 percent from February 2017. The average price was $281,200, moving up 4 percent.
