Home Sales Rise, Inventory Surges
Courtesy of Tim Iacono at The Mess That Greenspan Made
The NAR (National Association of Realtors) reported that sales of existing homes rose 7.6 percent last month to an annual rate of 5.77 million units, a five-month high, but the inventory of unsold homes rose even more, surging 11.5 percent to a nine-month high of 4.04 million units, the important “months of supply” metric rising from 8.1 to 8.4 months.
The median home price during April was $173,100, up 4.0 percent from a year ago, and distressed sales accounted for 33 percent of all sales, down from 35 percent in March.
Since the NAR reports sales at the time of closing, there should be two more months of even higher sales totals before the effect of the home buyer tax credit vanishes and we see another slump similar to the one late last year. Come July, among other things, it should be interesting to see if we get a price slump commensurate with the amount of free money given by the government to each new homebuyer over the last nine months.
