Existing home sales plummet to lowest level in 13 years as prices rise
foxbusiness.comNAHB CEO Jim Tobin discusses the state of the housing market, American homeownership, and using family money for home down payment.
U.S. existing home sales continued to slide in October as a combination of steep mortgage rates and a worsening supply shortage squeezed would-be homebuyers.
Sales of previously owned homes fell 4.1% in October from the previous month to an annual rate of 3.79 million units, according to new data released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It marked the slowest pace of sales since August 2010.
On an annual basis, existing home sales are down 14.6% when compared with October 2022.
«Prospective home buyers experienced another difficult month due to the persistent lack of housing inventory and the highest mortgage rates in a generation,» said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. «Multiple offers, however, are still occurring, especially on starter and mid-priced homes, even as price concessions are happening in the upper end of the market.»
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE CRASH STILL LOOMING OVER US ECONOMY
There were about 1.15 million homes for sale at the end of October, according to the report, up 1.8% from the previous month but down 5.7% from the same time one year ago.
A sign outside a sold home in Atlanta on 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 October was about $391,800 – up 3.4% from one year ago.
«While circumstances for buyers remain tight, home sellers have done well as prices continue to rise year-over-year, including a new all-time high for the month of October,» Yun said. «In fact, a typical
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