Home sales in both the new and existing
home markets posted significant declines for the second
straight month in January. Bad weather conditions
prevented buyers to shop for homes even as mortgage
rates reached near-record lows last
month.
New home sales plunged 11.2% in January to
a seasonally-adjusted annual pace of 309,000 units. This
was the third consecutive month that new home sales
volume have declined while hitting its slowest annual
rate on record. New home sales for the previous three
months were also revised lower by 10,000 units. Median
new home prices in January dropped to $203,500 from a
downwardly revised price of $215,600 in December. Prices
are down 5.6% from the previous month and are 2.4% lower
than they were this time last year. This is the lowest
median new home prices have been since December
2003.
In January, new home inventories remained
unchanged from the previous month at 233,000 units on a
non-seasonally adjusted basis. The number of new homes
for sale has not recorded a monthly increase since May
2007. However, seasonally-adjusted inventory of unsold
homes increased for the first time in January in almost
3 years. Seasonally-adjusted new home inventory
increased slightly to 234,000 units in January from
233,000 units in December. The record-low sales pace
pushed months of inventory to 9.1 months which is the
highest it has been since May.
Existing home sales fell for the second
straight month in January to a seasonally-adjusted
annual rate of 5,050,000 units. Resales have suffered
two consecutive months of dramatic declines after
reaching its highest levels since February 2007 in
November. Existing single-family home sales fell 6.9%
from last month to 4,430,000 units while existing condo
and co-op sales dropped 8.1% from December levels to
620,000 units. In January, the median sales price for an
existing home declined to $164,700 from a revised
$170,500 in December. This is the lowest median existing
home prices has been since May 2002.
Existing home inventory posted declines
for the sixth consecutive month in January, easing 0.5%
to a preliminary 3,265,000 units from a revised
3,283,000 units in December. This is the lowest level of
existing home inventory on the market since March
2006.
Written by: Jonathan
Dienhart
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