Just one month after the rate of existing home sales climbed to the highest level in nearly a decade, sales moved even higher. The Northeast led the rise.
November 2016 saw the sale of 415,000 existing U.S.
single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-operatives completed during the month.
Pre-owned home sales moved lower from a downwardly revised 445,000 units during the previous month but were up from 351,000 a year previous.
The National Association of Realtors reported the latest figures Wednesday.
Historical data from the trade group
indicate that there have been 5.012 million existing home sales during the first-11 months of this year.
Adjusting the data for seasonal factors, the annual rate of existing home sales was 5.61 million last month — the strongest
month since the rate was 5.79 million in February 2007.
In October 2016, the annual rate was
a downwardly revised 5.57 million, while it came in at an upwardly revised 4.86 million in November 2015.
“The healthiest job market since the Great Recession and the anticipation of some buyers to close on a home before mortgage rates accurately rose from their historically low level have combined to drive sales higher in recent months,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun explained in the report.
A month-over-month increase of 8 percent left the rate at 0.81 million in the Northeast.
“It’s no coincidence that home shoppers in the Northeast — where price growth has been tame all year — had the most success last month,” Yun added.
A 1 percent rise in the South put the rate there at 2.22 million.
At a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.25 million, the West was down nearly 2 percent on a month-over-month basis. In the Midwest, the rate fell more than 2 percent from October to 1.33 million.
On just single-family homes, the annual U.S. rate was 4.95 million last month.
It took 43 days on the market for the typical U.S. home to sell.
There were 1.85 million U.S. homes for sale as of Nov. 30, 2016. At the current pace of sales, it would take just 4.0 months to clear out the inventory.
The median home price was $234,900 last month, and the average price was $276,800.
Median home prices have risen on a year-over-year basis for 57 consecutive months.
First-time buyer share was 32 percent during the most-recent month,
while distressed-sale share was 6 percent, and all-cash share was 21 percent.
