August home sale numbers were released over the past week and saw a slight divergence from July’s numbers. While new-home sales continued to slightly see gains at a rate of 1.5%, according to the latest report from the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau, existing-home sales dropped by 2% from the previous month, per the latest report from the National Association of Realtors. Keep reading below for a further analysis of this month’s data.
Existing-Home Sales Cool Down for First Time in Three Months
For the first time since May, existing-home sale numbers have dropped from month to month. With a decline of 2.0% at a seasonally adjusted rate, this equates to a rate of 5.88 million for the month of August.
Inventory and high prices continue to be an attributed theme in the report for why sales may have slowed a bit in August. At the end of August, total inventory sat at 1.29 million units, which is down 1.5% compared to July, and a substantial 13.4% compared to August of 2020- a trend that has continued throughout the year. With this low inventory, exponential appreciation and prices have persisted as well. Compared to August of 2020 ($310,400), prices rose by 14.9% to a new median of $356,700.
This was the 114th straight month of home price increases. Homes remained on the marked for an average of 17 days, the same length of time as in July.
New-Home Sales Find Second Consecutive Month of Gains
New construction sales have increased for the second month in a row, this time by 1.5% in August, to total 740,000 units. This 1.5% is a difference from July (729,000) of 11,000 units. Prices for new-home also remained high, with a median sales price of $390,900 and an average price of $443,200. Inventory at the end of the month sat at 378,000 units, or a 6.1 month supply.
Bottom Line
The market is continuing to show signs of stabilization across multiple metrics and may even be returning to some sense of pre-covid seasonal normalcy. If your clients wants to get a move in before winter, connect with them today and share these data points.
