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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 29 days (30 days in August 2017)
• First-time buyers accounted for 31 percent of sales (31 percent in August 2017).
• Cash sales made up 20 percent of sales (20 percent in August 2017).
• Eighteen percent of sellers offered incentives such as paying for providing closing costs (8 percent), warranty (7 percent), and undertaking remodeling (2 percent).
• REALTORS® report “low inventory” and “interest rate” as the major issues affecting transactions in August 2018.