February 2017 Existing-Home Sales

NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this February is down 3.7 percent from last month but improved 5.4 percent from last year. February’s existing-home sales reached the 5.48 million seasonally adjusted annual rate.
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $228,400 in February, up 7.7 percent from a year ago. This marks 60 consecutive months of year over year’s gains as prices continue to rise.
Regionally, all four regions showed growth in prices from a year ago, with the South and West leading all regions with an incline of 9.6 percent. The Midwest had a gain of 6.1 percent. The Northeast had the smallest gain of 4.1 percent from February 2016.
From January, three of the four regions experienced declines in sales while the South inclined 1.3 percent. The Northeast had the biggest decline of 13.8 percent while the Midwest had a 7.0 percent decline in sales. The West had the smallest decline of 3.1 percent.
All four regions showed an increase in sales from a year ago with the West leading with an incline of 9.6 percent. The South had a gain of 5.9 percent followed by the Midwest with a gain of 2.6 percent. The Northeast had the smallest gain of 1.5 percent. The South headed all regions in percentage of national sales at 42.7 percent while the Northeast has the smallest share at 12.6 percent.
February’s inventory figures are up 4.2 percent from last month to 1.75 million homes for sale. Inventories are down 6.4 percent from a year ago which is 21 months of year over year declines. It will take 3.8 months to move the current level of inventory at the current sales pace. It takes approximately 45 days for a home to go from listing to a contract in the current housing market, down from 59 days a year ago. This is the lowest months’ supply in February since 1999.
In February, single-family sales declined 3.0 percent and condominiums declined 9.2 percent compared to last month. Single-family home sales inclined 5.8 percent and condominium sales were up 1.7 percent compared to a year ago. Both single-family and condominiums had an increase in price with single-family up 7.6 percent at $229,900 and condominiums up 8.2 percent at $216,100 from February 2016.