Home Sales Fall Again

Sales of existing homes in the USA dropped slightly, 0.41%. Compared to last month Sales dropped from 4.91 million units in December 2007 to 4.89 million in January 2008. This measure tracks units - condominiums, co-ops, and single family homes.

February sales data will be released near the end of March.

Sales Pace by Region

For month to month comparisons, sales in almost all regions were down — South about half a percent at -.51%, West -2.11%, and the Northeast -3.45%. The only region that was up was the Midwest, by 3.45%

Comparing sales to last year presents a worse picture. Nationwide, sales were down 23.35% compared to last year. The regional declines were hardest at the two corners of the country — West 28.46%, Northeast 25.69%, South 22%, and the Midwest by 20%

Data Information

We generally report on the annual sales pace. What that means is that the National Association of Realtors calculates how many homes were sold, makes adjustments for seasonal factors like weather, school, vacations, then calculates how many homes would sell in a year at that given pace. When we use raw data, we try to state that clearly.

Next Report

All figures in this report are for January 2008 closings. February 2008 data will be released at the very end of March.

Home Prices Fall

Nationally, the median average sales price fell compared to last year, down nationally by 4.65%, to a median average of $201,100. The Midwest showed the smallest decrease, only 4.04%, followed by the South at 5.90%while the West decreased in price by 6.69%. The aberration in the median sales price showed up in the Northeast, which was up by $15.900 and 3.12%, to $270,800.

We compare values to the same period a year ago. We do not use month-to-month comparisons because there are sometimes huge fluctuations in the size of houses that sell in different seasons. Larger houses sell during the summer when it is more convenient for families to move.

Inventory Up

It would take 10.3 months to sell all the homes currently available on the market. That is up. Last month's inventory was 9.7 months and the previous month's inventory at this sales pace was 10.3 months.

The actual number of homes listed for sale peaked at 4,561,000 in July. At the end of December, there were only 3,974,000 homes for sale. At the end of January, it was back up to 4,191,000 units.

Inventory is measured in two ways. "How many homes are available for sale?" and "How many months would it take to sell the total number of homes available for sale right now, at the current sales pace?" When the sales pace declines, inventory measured in months will increase, even in the same number of homes are for sale.