Existing Home Sales Rise Again Nationally

By  //  September 20, 2012

Sixth Straight Month Of Improvement

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BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – According to the National Association of Realtors®, existing-home sales continued to improve in August and the national median price rose on a year-over-year basis for the sixth straight month.

Sales of existing homes nationwide rose again for the sixth straight month in August. (Shutterstock image)

Total existing-home sales, which are closed sales transactions include single-family homes, town homes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 7.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.82 million in August from 4.47 million in July, and are 9.3 percent higher than the 4.41 million-unit level in August 2011.

“Inventories in many parts of the country are broadly balanced, favoring neither sellers nor buyers.,” said Lawrenece Yun, NAR chief economist.  “However, the West and Florida markets are experiencing inventory shortages, which are placing pressure on prices,” he said.

Lawrenece Yun
Lawrenece Yun

“The housing market is steadily recovering with consistent increases in both home sales and median prices. More buyers are taking advantage of excellent housing affordability conditions,” said Yun.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $187,400 in August, up +9.5% from a year ago. The last time there were six back-to-back monthly price increases from a year earlier was from December 2005 to May 2006. The August increase was the highest since January 2006.

Last year on the national level, listed inventory for home for sale was at a 8.2 month supply. Currently the listed inventory is now at a 6.1 month supply indicating a 18.2% drop.

Also the DOM (days on market) continues in the buyers direction.  The median time on market was 70 days in August, down 23.9% from 92 days in August 2011.

This is more positive news for homebuilders across the nation. Stocks for the Broad Homebuilder Indexes (XHB and ITB) and homebuilders (DHI, PHM, KBH) were all up this morning.

“The strengthening housing market is occurring even with difficult mortgage qualifying conditions, which is testament to the sizable stored-up housing demand that accumulated in the past five years,” Yun added.

Stay tuned for my monthly detailed real estate market report for Brevard County.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Freeman

Bobby Freeman, a life-time resident of Brevard County, has been a top Realtor in the area for two decades. In his first year as an agent, Freeman received a Rising Star award from his Brokers. Since then he has achieved numerous sales awards and has recently been presented with the prestigious RE/MAX Hall of Fame Award.

Freeman, Jennifer McCoy and Nikki McCoy Freeman are family partners for RE/MAX Elite’s McCoy-Freeman Group. Together they have more than 30 years of extensive experience in all aspects of the real estate industry and have sold over $150 million. Among McCoy-Freeman Group’s achievement are RE/MAX Hall of Fame, RE/MAX 100% Club, Certified Distressed Property Experts (CDPE), Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR) and voted Best Realtor in Brevard County. The group has been featured in many news publications including CNN Money Magazine, CNNMoney.com, WFTV 9 ABC News, Coastal Condo Living, & Hot Retirement Towns Magazine and SpaceCoastDaily.com.

For more information log on to BrevardRealtyConnection.com