The National Association of Realtors just released its updated statistics from March. These apply to the U.S. rather than just our local market area. Below are some important snippets.
- Existing-home sales fell for the second straight month in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million. Sales were down 2.7% from the prior month and 4.5% from a year ago.
- With slower demand, the inventory of unsold existing homes increased to 950,000 as of the end of March. That would support 2.0 months at the monthly sales pace.
- The median existing-home sales price rose to $375,300, up 15% from one year ago.
Before we get too excited about slowing demand, we should keep in mind that 2 months of inventory is still extremely low. Further, the inventory statistics are price increases are both worse from a buyer perspective locally than on a nationwide basis. That said, it is good to continue to see signs of market balancing.