• May existing home sales were up 1.8 percent from April, to 5.53 million units (SAAR).
• The median, seasonally adjusted price of an existing home sold in May fell 0.6 percent from April, to $229,850, but was up 4.7 percent from a year ago.
• The inventory of existing homes for sale rose 0.3 percent from April, to 2.03 million units, but remains down 5.75 percent from last year.

It’s encouraging to see another month of growth, the third in a row, in today’s May existing home sales report. But beyond that, it offers buyers little good news to grasp onto. Prices were down slightly from last month, but remain very close to all-time highs set in October 2005. Inventory, while up very modestly from April largely thanks to more condos coming up for sale, is still well below a year ago. And the time homes spend on the market has fallen by a week in just one month, to 32 days, making an already hyper-competitive market even more so. Buyers struggling to find an affordable home to buy will continue to do so, even given these very small improvements.