January home deals bounce 6.7% despite a scarce record supply
Key takeaways:
- Sales of earlier owned houses in January grew 6.7% from December to a seasonally adapted annualized rate of 6.5 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors.
- The supply of residences for sale plunged to a record low, down 16.5% from a year back.
- Tight supply and robust demand forced the median cost of a home sold in January to $350,300, an upsurge of 15.4% from January 2021.
Home deals in January leaped to 6.5%:
Sales of earlier owned residences in January increased 6.7% from December to a seasonally modified annualized rate of 6.5 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors.
That surpassed Wall Street anticipations seriously. Sales were 2.3% lower, likened to January 2021.
The supply of houses for sale dropped to a record low, down 16.5% from a year back. There were only 860,000 homes for sale at the end of January. It would take 1.6 months to finish that inventory at the present sales rate. A 4 to 6-month supply is considered a balanced market.
That is even a record low.
“Seller gridlock is very, very low, indicating that inventory is stumbling to make the turn. Realtors are displaying numerous bidding battles are still happening,” stated Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors.
Tight supply and robust demand forced the median price of a house sold in January to $350,300, a growth of 15.4% from January 2021.
That cost is somewhat skewed because most sales activity is on the higher end of the market.
Supply is thinnest on the low end.
Homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000 were down 23% from a year ago, while deals of homes priced between $750,000 and $1 million rose 33%. Sales of homes cost beyond $1 million were up 39%.