Existing home sales fall for fifth month as supply crunch worsens
Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman analyzes the state of the housing market after mortgage rates surged past 7% on 'Cavuto: Coast to Coast.'
U.S. existing home sales continued to slide in August as a combination of steep mortgage rates and a worsening supply shortage squeezed would-be homebuyers.
Sales of previously owned homes fell 0.7% in August from the previous month to an annual rate of 4.04 million units, according to new data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). On an annual basis, existing home sales are down 15.3% when compared with August 2022.
There were about 1.1 million homes for sale at the end of August, according to the report, down 0.9% from the previous month and 14.1% from the same time one year ago.
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A sign outside a home for sale in Atlanta on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. (Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The decline in inventory helped to drive prices higher last month. The median price of an existing home sold in August was about $407,100 – up 3.9% from one year ago. It marked the fifth time on record that prices eclipsed $400,000.
«Home prices continue to march higher despite lower home sales,» said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR. «Supply needs to essentially double to moderate home price gains.»
The worsening housing shortage has also buoyed consumer demand.
Homes sold on average in just 20 days last month. While that is down slightly from the 14 days recorded in July 2022, it marks a major increase from prior years. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, homes typically sat on the market for about a month before being sold.
At the current pace of sales, it would take roughly 3.3
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