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The REALTORS® Confidence Index is a key indicator of housing market strength based on a monthly survey sent to over 50,000 real estate practitioners. Practitioners are asked about their expectations for home sales, prices and market conditions. In addition, the "Questions of the Month," feature results of a timely aspect of the housing market.

Note: the REALTOR® Confidence Index is provided by NAR solely for use as a reference. Resale of any part of this data is prohibited without NAR's prior written consent.

Highlights

• Properties were typically on the market for 46 days (40 days in December 2017).

• First-time buyers accounted for 32 percent of sales (32 percent in December 2017).

• Cash sales made up 22 percent of sales (20 percent in December 2017).

• From October–December 2018, 75 percent of contracts settled on time (71 percent in December 2017).

• REALTORS® report “interest rate” and “low inventory” as the major issues affecting transactions in December 2018.