November 2021 Existing Home Sales Increase for Third Consecutive Month

NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this November increased 1.9% from October 2021, the third consecutive month of increase. November’s existing-home sales reached a 6.46 million seasonally adjusted annual rate. November’s sales of existing homes declined 2.2% from November 2020, reflecting the off-season bump in sales in the second half of 2020 as the economy started opening up from the pandemic lockdown. 

• The national median existing-home price for all housing types rose to $353,900 in November, up 13.9% percent from a year ago. Home prices have continued to rise, and this marks the 117th consecutive month of year-over-year gains.

• Regionally, all four regions showed strong price growth from a year ago. The South had the largest gain of 18.4% followed by the Midwest with an increase of 9.0%. The West showed an increase of 8.4% and the Northeast had the smallest price gain of 4.7% from November 2020. 
• November’s inventory declined 9.8% from last month standing at 1.11 million homes for sale, falling for the second consecutive month. Compared with November of 2020, inventory levels are 13.3% lower. This would mark 30 straight months of year over year declines. It will take 2.1 months to move the current level of inventory at the current sales pace, well below the desired pace of 6 months. 
• Demand remains strong as home buyers are snatchings listings quickly off the MLS and it takes approximately 18 days for a home to go from listing to a contract in the current housing market. A year ago, it took 21 days. 

• From a year ago, three of the four regions had declines in sales. The South region had a gain of 1.1%.  The Northeast had the biggest dip of 11.6% followed by the West which fell 3.6%. The Midwest had the smallest decline in sales of 0.7%. 
• From October of 2021, three of the four regions showed increases in sales, while the Northeast was flat. The South region had the largest increase of 2.9% followed by the West with a gain of 2.3%. The Midwest had the smallest increase of 0.7%. 
• The South led all regions in percentage of national sales, accounting for 44.1% of the total, while the Northeast had the smallest share at 11.8%. 

• In November, single-family sales increased 1.6% and condominiums sales were down 4.4% compared to last month. Single-family home sales were down 2.2% while condominium sales were flat compared to a year ago. The median sales price of single-family homes rose to 14.9 at $362,600 from November 2020, while the median sales price of condominiums rose 4.4% at $283,200.