Homes sales rebounded strongly in the US in February, latest agent index shows

Existing home sales in the United States rebounded strongly in February, recording the biggest month non month gain since December 2015 with a rise of 11.8%, the latest index shows.

But sales in this sector are still down by 1.8% year on year while prices are still rising, up 3.6% year on year to $249,500, the 84th month in a row that there has been annual growth, according to the data from the National Association of Realtors.

Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, credited a number of aspects to the jump in February sales. ‘A powerful combination of lower mortgage rates, more inventory, rising income and higher consumer confidence is driving the sales rebound,’ he added.

Total housing inventory at the end of February increased to 1.63 million, up from 1.59 million existing homes available for sale in January, a 3.2% increase from 1.58 million a year ago. Unsold inventory is at a 3.5 month supply at the current sales pace, down from 3.9 months in January but up from 3.4 months in February 2018.

Properties remained on the market for an average of 44 days in February, down from 49 days in January but up from 37 days a year ago and 41% of homes sold in February were on the market for less than a month.

‘For sustained growth, significant construction of moderately priced homes is still needed. More construction will help boost local economies and more home sales will help lessen wealth inequality as more households can enjoy in housing wealth gains,’ Yun pointed out.

A breakdown of the index figures shows that sale in the Northeast were unchanged month on month and up 1.5% year on year with a median price of $272,900, up 3.8% from February 2018. In the Midwest, sales rose 9.5% month on month, more or less unchanged February 2018 with a median price of $188,800, which is up 5.4% year on year.

Sales in the South increased by 14.9% on a monthly basis but are own 0.4% year on year with a median price of $219,300, up 2.5% from a year ago. In the West sales increased strongly by 16% month on month and were up 7.9% year on year with a median price of $379,300, up 3% from February 2018.