Sales of existing homes in the USA dropped last month, but only slightly. May sales figures were recently reported down .33% from from April.  These are the lowest sales levels we’ve seen since 2003, just under an annual sales pace of six million homes. 

Compared to last May (2006), the sales pace was down 10.33%.

June’s sales figures will be announced in late July.

Sales Pace by Region

For month to month comparisons, the Northeast showed a sales gain of 5.77% and sales were up slightly in the Midwest, by .71%.  Sales in the South declined by 3.36% and fell only slightly in the West, by .84%. 

The figures are adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, then converted to an annual sales pace.

Using raw data and real numbers instead of seasonally adjusted data, we can compare the sales activity to May of last year, instead of month-to-month.  In that case, sales were down 10.33% nationwide, with the sharpest decline in the West, by 16.13%.  All other regions showed falling sales as well, by 1.88% in the South, 6.62% in the Midwest, and 3.51% in the Northeast. 

Figures are calculated using raw data without adjusting for seasonal factors, just comparing May 2006 to May 2007.

Conditions will vary locally.

Inventory Levels Up Again

Inventory is measured in “how many months it would take to sell the total number of homes available for sale right now, at the current sales pace.” 

It would take 8.9 months to sell all the existing homes currently on the market. The number of homes for sale increased from April by 111,000 homes.  Compared to last May at this time, there are 842,000 additional homes available for sale.  As you can see, there are many more homes on the market and the sales pace from a year ago has declined substantially across the USA.

Home Prices Decline in USA

Nationally, the median average sales price fell 2.1% compared to one year ago.  The only region showing an increase in was the Northeast with only a slight pop in value, a half percent.  The other regions show declines:  .052% in the West, 1.69% in the Midwest, and 3.82% in the South.

These figures compare current sales prices to those of one year ago using raw data without any seasonal adjustments.

Once again, we will have reports on June sales prices near the end of July.