U.S. sales of existing homes recently fell to a 13-year low, dropping 2.0% month-over-month and 15.4% year-over-year as of last measure, according to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), as surging interest rates and elevated sales prices continue to make homeownership unaffordable for many prospective buyers. Purchase activity is down significantly compared to this time last year, but rising interest rates are also keeping many current homeowners from selling, causing inventory to remain at historically low levels nationwide.
• Single Family Closed Sales were down 16.3 percent to 4,704.
• Townhouse-Condo Closed Sales were down 17.8 percent to 1,607.
• Adult Communities Closed Sales were down 3.4 percent to 650.
• Single Family Median Sales Price increased 10.6 percent to $519,950.
• Townhouse-Condo Median Sales Price increased 14.0 percent to $387,500.
• Adult Communities Median Sales Price increased 7.7 percent to $349,999.
Total housing inventory going into October was at 1.13 million units, up 2.7% from the previous month but down 8.1% compared to the same time last year, for a 3.4 months’ supply at the current sales pace, according to NAR. The shortage of homes for sale is making it harder for buyers to find a home to purchase while at the same time pushing sales prices higher nationwide, with the median existing-home sales price rising 2.8% annually to $394,300, the third consecutive month of year-over-year price increases.
Single Family Market Overview
Single Family Homes for October
Key Metrics 2022 2023 Change
New Listings 6,463 6,063 – 22.0%
Closed Sales 4,869 4,619 – 5.1%
DOM* 38 34 – 10.5%
Median PX $470K $520K + 10.6%
Average PX $592K $651K + 10.0%
% PX Rec’d 100.5% 102.4% + 1.9%
Inventory 19,316 13,859 – 28.3%
Month Supply 3.1 2.9 – 6.5%
*Days on Market