Following recent indicators of good news on the housing front, the market looks to be on the upswing based on home sales and median prices released today by the National Association of Realtors.
Existing home sales rose 7.8% year over year in August, marking the sixth straight month of increase and a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.82 million, up from 4.47 million in July.
The uptick can be attributed to favorable buying conditions, said NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun.
“The housing market is steadily recovering with consistent increases in both home sales and median prices. More buyers are taking advantage of excellent housing affordability conditions,” he said. “Inventories in many parts of the country are broadly balanced, favoring neither sellers nor buyers. However, the West and Florida markets are experiencing inventory shortages, which are placing pressure on prices.”
Those prices, on average, saw a 9.5% year over year increase in August, to $187,000. The last time the housing market saw six consecutive months of home price growth was December 2005 to May 2006, NAR reported.
“The strengthening housing market is occurring even with difficult mortgage qualifying conditions, which is testament to the sizable stored-up housing demand that accumulated in the past five years,” Yun said.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
