Compared to a year ago, last month was down 0.6 percent from a 4.90 million-unit pace from December 2012, the association reported, but when 2013 was taken as a whole, its 5.09 million sales were 9.1 percent higher than 2012. Annual performance hasn’t been that good since 2006 when sales hit a high of 6.48 million during the housing bubble.
“Existing-home sales have risen nearly 20 percent since 2011, with job growth, record low mortgage interest rates and a large pent-up demand driving the market,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “We lost some momentum toward the end of 2013 from disappointing job growth and limited inventory, but we ended with a year that was close to normal given the size of our population.”
In terms of price, the median price for all existing homes of all types hit $198,000 in December, marking a 9.9 percent increase from December 2012. Looking at the full year, the national median existing-home price for the entirety of 2013 was $197,100, marking an 11.5 percent gain over 2012’s median of $176,800. This was the biggest yearly gain since 2005’s 12.4 percent increase.
Helping drive that price growth was a shrinking number of transactions of distressed homes, such as foreclosures and short sales, which comprised 14 percent of December’s sales. While this was unchanged from November it was down considerably from December 2012’s 24 percent.
And prices might continue to grow given the supply of homes for sale. Housing inventory for December fell 9.3 percent to 1.86 million existing homes available for sale, representing a 4.6 month supply at the
ERICWISEBranch Manager
direct: (317) 759-28491644 Fry Rd cell: (317) 258-6303Greenwood, IN 46142fax: 317-489-5230josh.wise@movementmortgage.comNMLS: 990676movementmortgage.com
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