US home sales slide in August after 3 months of solid gains

This month, NAR estimates that 2,290,000 homes are on the resale market, up 1.3% from last month. Sales were up 6.2 per cent from a year ago.

Sales activity was down in many parts of the country last month – especially in the South and West – as the persistent summer theme of tight inventory levels likely deterred some buyers.

“We’ve had very good job growth over the last couple years and that’s typically a big driver of housing”, Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James Financial Inc.in St. Petersburg, Florida, said before the report. The median existing-home price for all housing types in August was $228,700, which is 4.7 percent above August 2014 ($218,400). But prices eased 1.3% during the month, the second month of declines.

Data on FindTheHome shows the seasonally adjusted and annualized number of existing home sales was 5,310,000, down from 5,580,000 reported in July 2015. “With sales and overall demand higher than a year ago and supply mostly unchanged, low inventories will likely continue to limit options for those looking to buy this fall even with the overall pool of buyers shrinking because of seasonal factors”, adds Yun.

There are no major causes for weakness in the report, but I do not believe this is concerning given that August follows six consecutive months of strong data, so there was bound to be a pullback of some sort.

“Sales returned to a more modest long-term annual growth rate in August while prices continued to increase”, said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) at the University of Illinois.

Sales in July were the strongest in eight years, boosted by healthy job growth and relatively low mortgage rates.

All homes were on the market for an average of 47 days in August, up from 42 days in July.

Fifty-one (51) counties recorded median price gains in August 2015 over previous-year numbers, including Champaign County, up 9.9 percent to $154,900; St. Clair County, up 6.2 percent to $137,000; and Kane County, up 3.0 percent to $204,000. It was at 10.9 months at the end of August 2014. August’s price increase marks the 42nd consecutive month of year-over-year gains. Five% of August sales were foreclosures and 2% were short sales.

Existing home sales for came in at a lower-than-expected level of 5.31 million units; with this pullback, existing home sales are now on par with the pace set in April. The median price in the Midwest was $181,100, up 4% from a year ago. Compared with August 2014, inventory dropped 1.7 percent. The median price in the South was $196,300, up 6.0% from a year ago.

Sales and price information is generated by Multiple Listing Service closed sales reported by 29 participating Illinois REALTOR® local boards and associations including Midwest Real Estate Data LLC as of September 8, 2015 for the period of August 1 through Aug. 31. Prices in the West were up 7.1 per cent from a year earlier.