Economy: Existing Home Sales During December 2018

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Existing Home Sales During December 2018

The Existing Home Sales report for December 2018 was released by The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) this morning:

Predicted: 5,225,000
Actual: 4,990,000

Change from Previous Month: -6.4%
Change from One Year Previous: -10.3%

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Inventory: 1,550,000 (3.7 months supply)

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The yellow-highlighted, "actual" figure above represents the preliminary, seasonally adjusted annualized sales count of existing homes, co-ops and condominiums for the indicated month. The "predicted" figure is what economists were expecting, while the "actual" is the true or real figure.

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Median Price for A Used Home During December: $253,600

Change from One Year Previous: +2.9%

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Average Price for A Used Home During December: $292,800

Change from One Year Previous: +1.6%

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Median Price for A Used Home During 2018: $259,100

Change from 2017: +4.814%

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Click here for historical prices and a chart.

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From Today's Report:

"...Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, says current housing numbers are partly a result of higher interest rates during much of 2018. 'The housing market is obviously very sensitive to mortgage rates. Softer sales in December reflected consumer search processes and contract signing activity in previous months when mortgage rates were higher than today. Now, with mortgage rates lower, some revival in home sales is expected going into spring.'

'Several consecutive months of rising inventory is a positive development for consumers and could lead to slower home price appreciation,' says Yun. 'But there is still a lack of adequate inventory on the lower-priced points and too many in upper-priced points.'

'The partial shutdown of the federal government has not had a significant effect on December closings, but the uncertainty of a shutdown has the potential to harm the market,' said NAR President John Smaby, a second-generation Realtor® from Edina, Minnesota and broker at Edina Realty. 'Once the government is fully reopened, I am hopeful that housing transactions will increase.'..."