Having ticked up 6.7 percent in January, the seasonally adjusted pace of existing-home sales across the U.S. dropped 7.2 percent in February to an annual rate of 6.02 million sales and was down 2.4 percent on a year-over-year basis, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and marking the seventh straight month with a year-over-year decline.
At the same time, the number of existing homes on the market at the end of last month, net of all sales, inched up 2.4 percent to 870,000 but was 15.5 percent lower than at the same time last year while the unsold inventory of new homes on the market is has climbed to a 13-year high. And while the median existing-home sale price last month ($357,300) was 15.0 percent higher than it was at the same time last year ($310,600), that’s with an ongoing shift in the mix of the homes that have sold and still 1.5 percent below its peak of $362,900 last June.
