Two very important housing reports last week and both showed some real strength in our housing market. The National Association of Realtor’s Existing Home Sales Report for September showed a small decrease in sales but that was only due to the fact that there are no houses to buy. Inventory remains near an all time low.
But the report did show that owning real estate has really been a great investment as the median sales price increased to $272,100 which is a 5.9% increase over the past 12 months and marks the 91st straight month of home price increases.
Total housing inventory at the end of September sat at 1.83 million units, approximately equal to the amount of existing-homes available for sale in August. Unsold inventory is at a 4.1-month supply at the current sales pace, down from the 4.4-month figure recorded in September 2018.
Properties typically remained on the market for 32 days in September, up from 31 days in August and even with September 2018. Forty-nine percent of homes sold in September 2019 were on the market for less than a month.
First-time buyers were responsible for 33% of sales in September, up from 31% in August.
In a separate report, the Census Bureau’s New Home Sales report for September showed that the median sales price of new houses sold in September 2019 increased to 299,400.The average sales price was $362,700. Sales increased to an annualized pace of 701K units which is a gain of 1.6%