NEW YORK – Existing home sales decreased 2.7% in August to a seasonally adjusted 5.10 million-unit rate, the National Association of Realtors announced this morning.
The sales decline to 5.10 million, contrasted the gain to a 5.35 million unit pace predicted by Thomson Reuters’ poll of economists and followed an unrevised 7.2% increase to 5.24 million units in July.
On a year-over-year basis, sales overall were up 3.4% from a 4.93 million unit sales pace last August.
“Home sales retrenched from a very strong improvement in July but continue to be much higher than before the stimulus. The first-time buyer tax credit is having the intended impact of bringing buyers into the market, allowing them to take advantage of very favorable affordability conditions,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. “Some of the give-back in closed sales appears to result from rising numbers of contracts entering the system, with some fallouts and a backlog contributing to a longer closing process, but the decline demonstrates we can’t take a housing rebound for granted.”
Sales fell in three of the four regions of the country in August, decreasing 2.2% in the Northeast to 910,000, dropping 6.6% to 1.14 million units in the Midwest; and slipping 3.1% in the South to 1.89 million. In the West sales grew 2.7% to 1.16 million units, NAR said.
Inventory levels sank 10.8% at the end of August, to 3.622 million existing homes for sale, representing an 8.5-month supply at the current sales pace, down from 9.3 months in last month’s report.
Meanwhile, the median existing home price was $177,700 in August, off 2.1% from the prior month, when the median price was $181,500, but slid 12.5% year-over-year from a $203,200 level.
The average existing home price was $222,800 in August, off 2.0% from the prior month, when the average price was $227,400, and down 9.3% year-over-year from a $245,600 level.
The national average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 5.19%, down from July’s 5.22%, NAR said. The rate was 6.48% in August 2008.
