WASHINGTON – Existing-home sales nationwide rose in November, defying expectations, according to a report today from the National Association of Realtors.
Sales of existing single-family houses, condominiums, co-ops and townhouses edged up 0.4 percent last month to an annual rate of 5.0 million, rebounding from an October rate of 4.98 million per year that was the lowest since the NAR began keeping records in 1999. Resales were down 20 percent compared with November 2006, and 31 percent compared with their peak in July 2005.
Analysts had expected home resales in November to hold at the initially reported October level of 4.97 million per year, based on the median estimate from a Bloomberg News survey of 58 economists. (Their estimates ranged from 4.70 million to 5.15 million units per year.)
“Mortgage interest rates are near historic lows,” Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement today, “and the most current data shows decelerating price declines along with a modest reduction in the number of homes on the market.”
The nation’s housing inventory shrank 3.6 percent, to 4.27 million existing homes for sale at the end of November. At the current rate of sales, that represented a 10.3-month supply, a 3.7-percent decline from October’s 10.7-month supply but a 41.1-percent increase from a year ago.
The median price of homes sold in November was $210,200, an increase of 1.6 percent from October but a decline of 3.3 percent from a year ago. But that slight month-over-month increase followed four straight months of declines.
“There are some mixed signals coming from the housing market,” Julia Coronado, senior economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York, told Bloomberg News, “and I think overall the trend is toward weaker sales in the next quarter.”
For existing single-family homes, the median price was $208,700, an increase of 1.9 percent compared with October but a decline of 3.7 percent compared with November 2006. Sales also edged up slightly, to 4.4 million units per year, an increase of 0.7 percent from October but a decrease of 19.9 percent from a year ago. The supply at the current rate of sales fell to 9.9 months, a decrease of 4.8 percent from a month earlier but an increase of 39.4 percent from November 2006.
The median price of condo and co-op units sold last month was $221,100, an increase of 0.3 percent from October but a decrease of 0.7 percent from a year ago. But sales fell to a rate of 600,000 per year, 1.6 percent slower than in October and 20.6 percent slower than in November 2006. At the current rate of sales, that left a 12.7 month supply at the end of the month, a decrease of 0.8 percent compared with the end of October but an increase of 38.0 percent from a year ago.
Among regions, existing-home sales rose last month only in the West (+10 percent). They fell in the Northeast (-3.3 percent) and the South (-2.0 percent), and were little-changed in the Midwest.
“Inventory is still high, and further reduction in prices may be required in some areas to induce buyers back into the market,” said the NAR’s Yun.But, he added: “Near term, existing-home sales should continue to hover in a narrow range, just as they have since September – and that’s good news because it’ll be a further sign that the housing market is stabilizing.”
The National Association of Realtors is the nation’s largest trade association, with more than 1.3 million members in all aspects of residential and commercial real estate. Additional information is available at www.realtor.org.
