Economy: Existing Home Sales During August 2022

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

Predicted: 4,800,000

Actual: 4,800,000

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Change from Previous Month: -0.415% (-20,000 homes)
Change from A Year Ago: -19.87% (-1,190,000 homes)

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Inventory: 1,280,000 (3.2 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: $389,500
Price Change from A Year Ago: +7.75% (+$28,000)

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Click here for historical prices and a chart.

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From Today's Report:

"...'The housing sector is the most sensitive to and experiences the most immediate impacts from the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy changes,' said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. 'The softness in home sales reflects this year's escalating mortgage rates. Nonetheless, homeowners are doing well with near nonexistent distressed property sales and home prices still higher than a year ago.'

'Inventory will remain tight in the coming months and even for the next couple of years,' Yun added. 'Some homeowners are unwilling to trade up or trade down after locking in historically-low mortgage rates in recent years, increasing the need for more new-home construction to boost supply.'

The median existing-home price for all housing types in August was $389,500, a 7.7% jump from August 2021 ($361,500), as prices ascended in all regions. This marks 126 consecutive months of year-over-year increases, the longest-running streak on record. However, it was the second month in a row that the median sales price retracted after reaching a record high of $413,800 in June, the usual seasonal trend of prices declining after peaking in the early summer.

Properties typically remained on the market for 16 days in August, up from 14 days in July and down from 17 days in August 2021. Eighty-one percent of homes sold in August 2022 were on the market for less than a month..."