“Given stronger job growth, and low rates that are going to be sticking around for at least a little while longer, the USA housing market is still in good shape”, Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.
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“The August decline in home sales seems to be a hiccup given that sales are still trending upward over the past year and that the residential construction pipeline is also expanding”, said Andres Carbacho-Burgos of Moody’s Analytics.
Total inventory for sale rose 1.3 percent to 2.29 million, but was down 1.7 percent from a year ago. This month, NAR estimates that 2,290,000 homes are on the resale market, up 1.3% from last month.
“With sales and overall demand higher than a year ago and supply mostly unchanged, low inventories will likely continue to limit options for those looking to buy this fall even with the overall pool of buyers shrinking because of seasonal factors”, Yun said.
The percentage of first-time buyers bounced to 32% in August, up from 30% in July, matching the highest share of first-time buyers set in May. A year ago, first-time buyers represented 29 percent of all buyers.
August’s sales also continued to increase the year-to-date sales numbers and average and median price for the Dayton area. The Fed would do well to leave interest rates low until home-buying levels become far more robust than the present.
Analysts said the August pullback was a correction from the July surge as the housing market normalizes. Foreclosed homes were on the market for an average of 66 days and short sales took a median of 124 days to sell. While home sales have improved this year, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said last week that the pace of improvement has been inconsistent with a firmer labor market and demographics that should provide a bigger boost.
Realtors logged 508 sales in August, a drop of 0.8 percent from 512 in August 2014.
Of all purchases, cash transactions accounted for about 22 percent, the report showed. Sales were unchanged in the Northeast, where price gains were smallest. “A large majority of Realtors have taken some form of training to prepare for the new disclosure requirements”, he said. That’s down from 5.58 million in July, which was the highest in more than eight years. The median existing single-family home price was $230,200 in August, up 5.1 percent from August 2014.
The median forecast of 73 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for sales to ease to a 5.5 million annual rate. The median price in the Northeast was $271,600, which is 2.4% higher than August 2014. “With almost three-quarters of the year in the books, home sales are up more than 6 percent compared to 2014”.
In the Midwest, existing home sales declined 1.5% to an annual rate of 1.28 million in August, but remain 5.8% above August 2014. But the median home price has increased 4.7 percent during that time, more than double the increase in average hourly pay.
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Existing home sales in the South fell 6.6% to an annual rate of 2.14 million in August, but are still 5.9% above August 2014.
