February Existing Home Sales Numbers from the NAR

The National Association of Realtors published their existing home sales report for February last week.  

Though existing home sales declined 0.6% from the January numbers, they were still 7% higher than last February.  The annualized rate is 5.0 million.  The decline was partly blamed on the February storms that shut down some of the hottest markets on the East coast.

The housing inventory increased from 7.8 months supply in January to 8.6 months supply in February.  This is disappointing, unless March numbers rebound and show that the disappointing February statistics were due to weather.  Our March "flash" report shows that this may be the case, as our residential inspection numbers are above both budget and last year.

The tax credit deadline for signed contracts is April 30, with closings required by June 30.  So far, this credit does not appear to be having much of an effect. 

Home prices are 2% below last year, at an average price of $165,100. Distressed homes accounted for 35% of transactions in February, down from recent months where 40% was more typical.  Conventional mortgage rates declined slightly to 4.99%.

Despite the snow, the Northeast was still the healthiest region with existing home sales increasing 2.4% (12% above last year) with median home prices up 7.5% from a year ago.

Here's the full story from the NAR.

And here's a video about it wiht comments from NAR's cheif economist, Lawrence Yun.