December Existing Home Sales Declines

NAR Press Release: December Existing-Home Sales Down but Prices Rise; 2009 Sales Up

Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – fell 16.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 5.45 million units in December from 6.54 million in November, but remain 15.0 percent above the 4.74 million-unit level in December 2008.

For all of 2009 there were 5,156,000 existing-home sales, which was 4.9 percent higher than the 4,913,000 transactions recorded in 2008; it was the first annual sales gain since 2005.

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Total housing inventory at the end of December fell 6.6 percent to 3.29 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 7.2-month supply4 at the current sales pace, up from a 6.5-month supply in November.

• On a percentage basis, the 16.7% monthly decline was the largest on record, dating back to 1968;

• Single-family home sales fell 16.8% (SAAR 4.79 million) and are 12.7% above the 4.25 million level in December 2008.

• Single-family sales rose 5.0% to 4,566,000 in 2009.

• First-time buyers purchased 43% of homes, down from 51% in November, according to a NAR survey.

• Median existing-home price for all housing types was $178,300 in December 2009 — a gain of 1.5% higher vs December 2008.

• Total housing inventory at the end of the year was down 6.6% to 3.29 million existing homes for sale — a 7.2-month supply;

• Raw inventory is 11.1% a year ago, the lowest level since March 2006;

Source Reference: NAR, via ritholtz.com 

Existing Home Sales – Non Seasonally Adjusted

 Graph Source: CalculatedRiskBlog.com

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Tags: consumer spending, economic progress, Housing Market

This entry was posted on January 25, 2010 at January 25, 2010 and is filed under Housing Market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.