NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this September fell 1.5% from August 2022. September's existing-home sales reached a 4.71 million seasonally adjusted annual rate. September's sales of existing homes declined 23.8% from September 2021.
The national median existing-home price for all housing types reached $384,800 in September, up 8.4% from a year ago. Home prices have continued to climb, marking the 127th consecutive month of year-over-year gains.
In September, all four regions showed strong price growth from a year ago. The South had the largest gain of 12.4%, followed by the West with an increase of 7.1%. The Midwest had an increase of 6.6%, followed by the Northeast with the smallest price gain of 1.5% from August 2021.
As of the end of the month, September's inventory of unsold listings fell 2.3% from last month, standing at 1,250,000 homes for sale. Compared with August 2021, inventory levels were down 0.8%. It will take 3.2 months to move the current inventory level at the current sales pace, well below the desired pace of 6 months.
Demand remains strong as home buyers snatched listings quickly off the MLS, and it took approximately 19 days for a home to go from listing to a contract in the current housing market. A year ago, it took 17 days.
From a year ago, all four regions had double-digit declines in sales in September. The West had the biggest dip of 31.3%, followed by the South which fell 23.8%. The Midwest decreased by 19.7%, followed by the Northeast, down 18.7%.
Compared to August 2022, three of the four regions showed reductions in sales. The South region had the largest decline of 1.9%, followed by the Midwest with an increase of 1.7%. The Northeast region had the smallest dip in sales at 1.6%. The West region was flat with no change in sales.
The South led all regions in percentage of national sales, accounting for 44.2% of the total, while the Northeast had the smallest share at 13%.
In September, single-family home sales decreased by 0.9%, and condominium sales fell by 5.8% compared to last month. Single-family home sales were 23.0%, while condominium sales fell 30.0% compared to a year ago. The median sales price of single-family homes rose 8.1% to $391,000 from September 2021, while the median sales price of condominiums rose 9.8% to $331,700.
