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NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this January declined 1.3% from December 2019. January’s sales of existing homes improved 9.6 % from January 2019. January’s existing-home sales reached a 5.46 million seasonally adjusted annual rate.
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $266,300 in January, up 6.8 percent from a year ago. This marks the 95th consecutive month of year-over-year gains.
Regionally, all four regions showed growth in prices from a year ago. The Northeast had the largest gain of 11.5% followed by the South with an incline of 6.3%. The Midwest had an increase of 5.4% and the West region, where it's most expensive, had the smallest gain of 5.2% from January 2019.
January’s inventory figures were up 2.2% from last month standing at 1.42 million homes for sale. Compared with January of 2019, inventory levels dropped 10.7%. This would mark eight straight months of year-over-year declines and is a record-setting low since 1999.1 It will take 3.1 months to move the current level of inventory at the current sales pace. It takes approximately 43 days for a home to go from listing to a contract in the current housing market, down from 49 days a year ago.
From December 2019, two of the four regions showed inclines in sales while the Northeast was flat. The West region had the only decline in sales of 9.4%. The Midwest had the biggest gain in sales at 2.4% followed by the South with a modest incline of 0.4%.
From a year ago, all four regions showed inclines in sales. The South had the biggest incline in sales of 11.7%. The Midwest had a gain of 8.4% followed by the West with an increase of 8.2%. The Northeast had the smallest gain in sales at 7.4%.
The South led all regions in percentage of national sales, accounting for 43.6 % of the total, while the Northeast had the smallest share at 13.4%.
In January, single-family sales were down 1.2% and condominiums sales were up 1.6% compared to last month. Single-family home sales were up 9.7% while condominium sales were up 8.9% compared to a year ago. Single-family homes had an increase in price up 6.9% at $268,600 and condominiums rose 5.7% at $248,100 from January 2019.
1 January 1999 is the start of the data series on the inventory of total existing homes (single-family and condominiums/coops) for sale.
