Last month, the annual rate of pre-owned residential home sales accelerated from the final month of last year. The improvement was led by sales in the West.
There were
320,000 existing home sales — including single family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-operatives — closed in the first month of this year.
Home sales sank when compared to 437,000 units sold during December 2016. But the number of closings was greater than 302,000 during January 2015.
The National Association of Realtors reported the latest statistics on Wednesday.
Applying seasonal adjustments to the NAR’s numbers, the annual rate of existing home sales was 5.69 million in January 2017.
The annual rate climbed from an upwardly revised 5.51 million a month earlier and an upwardly revised 5.48
million a year earlier.
“Existing-home sales stepped out to a fast start in 2017, surpassing a recent cyclical high and increasing in January to the fastest pace in almost a decade,” the report stated.
Pre-owned home sales in the West came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.29 million, rising from December 2016 by 7 percent — the biggest gain of any region. A 5 percent increase in the Northeast left the rate there at 0.80
million, and a 4 percent improvement in the South put the rate there at 2.31 million.
The Midwest was the only region to experience a month-over-month decline: 2 percent.
The single-family annual sales rate was 5.04 million in the most-recent report.
Last month’s activity left 1.69 million existing U.S. homes for sale, up 2 percent from the last report but down 7 percent on a year-over-year basis.
The current inventory worked out to a 3.6-month supply, no different than December 2016 and down 7 percent from January 2016.
Average marketing time was 50 days last month.
The NAR reported the median home price
at 228,900 as of January 2017, while the average price was $271,000.
First-time buyer share was one-third, while all-cash share was 23 percent, and
distressed share was 7 percent.
