Key Takeaways from the March Existing Home Sales Report

By Aaron Terrazas on 20 Apr 2016

• March existing home sales recovered most, but not all, of the monthly drop recorded in February drop, rising 5.1 percent month-over-month to 5.33 million units (SAAR).
• Inventory of homes for sale increased in March at its strongest pace in a year, but remains down over the year, the tenth consecutive month of annual declines in inventory.
• The median seasonally adjusted price of U.S. existing homes sold in March increased 1.05 percent, to $229,500

Existing home sales regained some – though not all – of their momentum in March, rising 5.1 percent from February to 5.33 million units at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate (SAAR), according to the National Association of Realtors.

February home sales were revised downward from 5.08 million units (SAAR) to 5.07 million units, increasing February’s month-over-month decline to 7.3 percent from an initially reported 7.1 percent (figure 1).

The inventory of existing homes available for sale loosened somewhat in March, rising 4.1 percent from February to 2.1 million units (SAAR) – the fastest monthly gain in inventory in a year and only the second time since 2010 that inventory has increased more than 4 percent in a single month. But inventory remains 1.4 percent below where it stood a year ago, and has fallen on an annual basis for ten consecutive months and in 11 of the past 12 months.

The median seasonally adjusted price of existing homes sold in March rose 1.05 percent from February to $229,500, while the median price of existing homes sold in February was revised upward to $227,100 from an initially reported $225,700. Over the year, the median price of existing homes sold is up 5.6 percent, with somewhat stronger price growth among single-family homes (median price up 5.75 percent over the year) than among condos/coops (up 4.5 percent over the year).