Existing Home Sales - November Report

Sales of existing homes remained stable in recently released reports from the National Association of Realtors. At an annual pace, this would equal 7.28 million homes selling during the year, the same as August. October sales figures will be released near the end of November.

Still, it means that September tied for the second best sales month on record.

Regionally, the West showed a month-to-month drop in sales of 4.14%, followed by the Midwest with a drop of 3.01%. Gains occurred in the South, with a 3.66% jump in sales, with the Northeast showing a slight increase of 0.83%.

The "annual sales pace" doesn't describe how many homes were actually sold during the month, but calculates how many homes would sell in a year if that month's sales pace continued, taking into account seasonal adjustments.

With no adjustments whatever, 627,000 previously owned homes were sold in September. That is a nationwide 9.62% jump in sales over last year. Using the "real" numbers (instead of "seasonally adjusted annualized" figures), sales were up 15.17% in the South, 8.42% in the Northeast, 7.3% in the West, and 5.51% in the West.

October sales figures will be released near the end of November.

Regional Price Breakdown

Price Growth - Median Average

Nationally, the median average sales price increased 13.37% over the last year. Regionally, prices increased by 14.83% in the West, 10.86% in the Northeast, 14.38% in the Midwest, and 8.24% in the South.

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Median Average

The median average is the "midpoint" sales price. Half the home were sold above that price and half below.

Inventory

At the current sales pace, it would take 4.7 months to sell all the homes currently available for sale. There has been a steady visible "trend" in housing inventory since the beginning of the year.

One would think this demonstrates a slower real estate market in the near future. We've been saying that for a couple of months, though.

Inventory isn't measured as "how many homes are for sale," but...."at this sales pace, how many months would it take to sell all the houses available for sale?"