Total existing-home sales fell 7.2% in February 2022 from January 2022. The year-over-year sales also fell by 2.4%, registering 6.17 million homes sold year-over-year.
Affordability continues to be a growing concern for new home buyers, in addition to the price wars and overall shortages of entry-level homes for sale. The affordability factor is obviously being fueled by the inventory shortage that has plagued the market for the last two-and-a-half years.
The median existing-home price in February climbed to $357,300, which reflects a 15% increase over February 2021 of $310,600. Each of the four national regions grew in their median existing-home price. This reflects the 120th consecutive month in year-over-year increases, representing the longest streak recorded.
Rising interest rates continue to exacerbate the affordability factor-reducing the number of qualified buyers who are no longer able to afford some homes as the rates climbed. The percentage of first-time buyers fell slightly in February from 31% in 2021 to 29% in 2022.
During the month of February, interest rates increased as the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit 4.16% as compared to 3.09% in 2021.
Nationwide the days on market are roughly the same as they were in January, falling just one day in February to 18 days from the 19 days recorded in January 2022. An interesting metric was the fact that 84% of homes in the month of February 2022 sold in less than one month.
All-cash transactions in the month of February represented 25% of all the purchases, which is down from 27% in January. But some of this may be due to the severe chronic ailment of available inventory. Because of the steep increase in home valuation, less than 1% of all February 2022 sales represented distressed sales, which include foreclosures and short sales.
Reported single-family existing-home sales fell just 2.2% from February 2021 to 5.35 million homes.
Economics continues to drive this market as is seen in the Southern states, which was the only region to see a sales gain year-over-year in the number of homes sold. Existing-home sales in the West fell 8.3% from 2021, where the median price in the West climbed to $512,600 from February 2021. The Northeast saw the number of sales slip 11.5% in February 2022 from 2021, with the median price coming in at $383,700, which was up 7.1% from 2021. The Midwest reported existing-home sales of 1,330,000 in February 2022, which was a decrease from 2021, and a median price increase of 7.5% to $248,000 from 2021.