Dayton home sales increase in January as average price drops

Existing home sales in the US unexpectedly saw a modest increase in the month of January, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Tuesday, with sales climbing to their highest rate in six months.

January’s results beat expectations, as economists had predicted existing home sales would slip 2.5% in January to an annualized rate of 5.32 million, according to Business Insider.

The median existing-home price for all housing types in January was $213,800, up 8.2% from January 2015.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the national association, described the housing market as resilient but expressed concerns about limited listings and rising prices.

“Despite the global economic slowdown, the housing sector continues to recover and will likely help the USA economy avoid a recession”.

But with spring less than a month away, total housing inventory is still struggling to meet market demand, with inventory at the end of January slightly increasing 3.4% to 1.82 million existing homes available for sale.

January existing-home sales in the Northeast rose 2.7% year over year to an annual rate of 750,000 and are now 20.6% above a year ago. Last month’s sales pace was also the second highest since 2007.

Homes sales in the Dayton area increased by 13 percent in January compared to the same month in 2015, the Dayton Area Board of Realtors reported today.

Driving those price increases are an absence of choices for buyers.

The unsold inventory represents 4.0 months of supply at the current sales rate compared to 3.9 months of supply in the previous month.

In the Midwest, existing-home sales increased 4% to an annual rate of 1.3 million in January and are now 18.2% above January 2014 sales.

Individual investors accounted for about 17% of homes in January, up from 15% in December and matching the highest share since last January.

“Mortgage rates are low but households are being careful in not taking on more mortgage debt than they can handle, and banks are lending to those with good credit quality”, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said Friday. Even so, borrowing costs for home buyers have fallen in recent weeks alongside the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note.