Economy: Existing Home Sales During February 2022

The Existing Home Sales report for February 2022 was released by The National Association of Realtors® (NAR®) this morning:

Predicted: 6,000,000
Actual: 6,020,000

Change from Previous Month: -7.242% (-470,000 homes)
Change from One Year Previous: -2.431% (-150,000 homes)

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Inventory: 870,000 (1.7 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 February 2022: $357,300

Change from One Year Previous: +15.035% (+$46,700)

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Average Price for A Used Home During February 2022: $370,700

Change from One Year Previous: +8.36% (+$28,600)

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Click here for historical prices and a chart.

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From Today's Report:

"...'Housing affordability continues to be a major challenge, as buyers are getting a double whammy: rising mortgage rates and sustained price increases,' said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. 'Some who had previously qualified at a 3% mortgage rate are no longer able to buy at the 4% rate.

'Monthly payments have risen by 28% from one year ago – which interestingly is not a part of the consumer price index – and the market remains swift with multiple offers still being recorded on most properties.'

Yun notes that rising rates and escalating prices have prevented many consumers from making a purchase.

'The sharp jump in mortgage rates and increasing inflation is taking a heavy toll on consumers' savings,' he said. 'However, I expect the pace of price appreciation to slow as demand cools and as supply improves somewhat due to more home construction.'

According to Freddie Mac, the average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage was 3.76% in February, up from 3.45% in January. The average commitment rate across all of 2021 was 2.96%.

Realtor.com®'s Market Trends Report in February shows that the greatest year-over-year median list price growth occurred in Las Vegas (+39.6%), Miami (+31.6%) and Tampa (+31.5%). Austin posted the highest growth in the share of homes which had their prices reduced compared to last year (+3.3 percentage points), followed by Milwaukee (+2.1 percentage points), Pittsburgh and Baltimore (+1.4 percentage points each)...'"