September 2016 Existing-Home Sales

NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity bounced back this month. September’s existing home sales reached the 5.47 million seasonally adjusted annual rate and existing-home sales are up 3.2 percent from a year ago.
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $234,200 in September, up 5.6 percent from a year ago.
Regionally, all four regions showed growth in prices from a year ago, with the West leading at 8.1 percent. The South had an increase of 6.6 percent, and the Midwest followed with a 5.9 percent increase. The Northeast had the smallest gain of 2.1 percent from September 2015.
From August, all four regions experienced inclined in sales with the Northeast having the biggest increase of 5.7 percent. The West followed with a gain of 5.0. The Midwest had a gain of 3.9 percent while the South had the smallest gain of 0.9 percent.
Two of the four regions showed a gain in sales from a year ago while the South was the only region to have a decline of 0.9 percent. The Midwest led all regions and had the biggest gain of 2.3 percent. The West had gains of 1.6 percent while the sales in the Northeast were flat. The South lead all regions in percentage of national sales at 39.5 percent while the Northeast has the smallest share at 13.5 percent.
September’s inventory figures are up 1.5 percent from last month to 2.04 million homes for sale and the level remains below historical averages. Inventories are considerably down 6.8 percent from a year ago. It will take 4.5 months to move the current level of inventory at the current sales pace. It takes approximately 39 days for a home to go from listing to a contract in the current housing market, down from 49 days a year ago.
Single family sales increased 4.1 percent while condos decreased 3.2 percent compared to last month. Single family home sales inclined 0.6 percent and condo sales were flat compared to a year ago. Both single family and condos had an increase in price with single family up 5.6 percent and condos up 6.1 percent from September 2015.