ARLINGTON, Va.—Existing home sales declined 7.2% in February to 6.02 million annualized units, representing a 3.5% decrease in sales compared to last year.
“Existing home sales fell in February, continuing its trend of oscillating between gains and declines,” said NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long. “Homes for sale at the end of the period slightly increased to 870,000.
“That figure represents just 1.7 months of sales at current levels,” added Long. “Consumers face both rising mortgage rates and price increases. That should soften demand to an extent, but there are still reports of buyer urgency to lock in rates that are expected to go higher.”
The new data show sales fell in all Census regions with the Northeast falling by 11.5% on the month, followed by the Midwest (-11.3%), the South (-5.1%), and the West (-4.7%).
Based on current month sales, there were 1.7 months of supply in February, slightly up from 1.6 months in January, with analysts considering six months of inventory a rough balance between supply and demand.
Consumers Expect Rates to Rise
“Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index found that two out of three consumers expect rates to rise over the next 12 months, an all-time high," noted Long. "With demand outstripping supply by such wide margins, it may take a significant growth in rates to bring the market into balance. In the meantime, price appreciation will continue to surge, putting the dream of homeownership further out of reach for first-time buyers. NAFCU expects home sales totals to trend up modestly through the rest of the year, as there is no clear resolution at hand to inventory shortages.”
Of note, the median home price, non-seasonally adjusted, rose to $357,300 in February, which is 15% higher than last year.
Don’t Forget to Check the Spam Folder!
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you didn’t receive your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines on Monday.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com.