Existing Home Sales Shrink for 11th Month

Existing home sales fell back for the 11th straight month in December according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) The month’s sales of pre-owned single-family houses, townhouses, condominiums, and cooperative apartments were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units. This is down 1.5 percent from November’s activity and 34.0 percent lower than in December 2022. Single-family home sales declined by 1.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.60 million from 3.64 million in November and were down 33.5 percent from the previous year. Existing condominium and co-op sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 420,000 units, a decline of 4.5 percent and 38.2 percent from the two earlier periods. [existinghomesdata] The December results were slightly better than expected. Analysts polled by Econoday and Trading Economics each came in with a consensus estimate of 3.97 units. For the entirety of 2022 there were 5.03 million existing homes sold. This was 17.8 percent fewer than in 2021, as last year’s rapidly escalating interest rate environment weighed on the residential real estate market. “December was another difficult month for buyers, who continue to face limited inventory and high mortgage rates,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. He said, however, he expects sales to pick up again soon since mortgage rates have markedly declined after peaking late last year.
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