The pace of seasonally adjusted existing-home sales in the U.S. rose 4.3 percent from a downwardly revised 4.38 million in December to a 4.57 million pace in January, up 0.7 percent from the 4.54 million unit pace recorded in January 2011.
Total housing inventory at the end of January ticked down 0.4 percent to 2.31 million existing homes actively on the market, a 6.1 month supply, down from a 6.4 month supply in December and versus a 7.6 month supply in January 2011.
While demand appears to have increased, and supply appears to have declined, the median sale price for existing-homes continued to decline, down 2.0 percent year-over-year in January to $154,700 as distressed sales accounted for 35 percent of sales volume, up three points from last month but down two points year-over-year.
Existing-home sales in the west increased 8.8 percent from December to January, down 3.1 percent year-over-year with a median sales price that’s down 1.8 percent as well.
∙ Existing Sales Pace Up And Supply Drops As Median Drops As Well [SocketSite]
∙ Existing-Home Sales Rise Again in January, Inventory Down [realtor.org]
The increase in January comes after December data was revised from +5% to -0.5%.
Comparing apples to apples (meaning pre-revision data) January is a decline, we’ll have wait to see what the real numbers are when the February numbers come out with January’s revised numbers.
Pre-revision numbers for the west show a 3.36% increase rather than 8.8% if I’m doing my math right…