money US existing home sales surge above February estimates: NAR
US existing home sales surged well above expectations for the month of February, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reporting 4.38 million against forecasts of 3.95 million. Despite the tremendous figure, home sales still fell year-over-year while median existing home prices also rose year-over-year.
Yahoo Finance Live breaks down the data and monitors mortgage rate trends.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Video Transcript
SEANA SMITH: Well, let's turn to some breaking news because we got another reading on the housing market, February existing home sales. Well, they surged in February. At least on a month-over-month basis, they were up 9.5%. Now, on a yearly basis, though, sales did decline. They were at 3.3%.
And digging into this report just a bit on a regional basis, they rose in the West, South, and Midwest but were unchanged in the Northeast on a month-over-month basis. On a year-over-year basis, sales declined in all four regions. We also read-- saw another uptick in the median price of existing homes-- of existing homes that were sold, that was 384,500. An increase of nearly 6% from a year ago.
BRAD SMITH: Yeah. National Association of Retailers-- not retailers-- Real-- Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. Good friend of the show. Sorry for butchering the title, Lawrence. Appreciate it. Anyway, housing-- housing demand has been on a steady rise due to population and job growth, he says. Though the actual timing of purchases will be determined by prevailing mortgage rates and wider inventory choices, and you think about the total housing inventory at the end of February, 1.07 million units. That was actually up 5.9% from January, 10.3% from one year ago unsold inventory, though. That sits at a 2 and-- 2.9 month supply at the current sales pace, that is down from three months in January but up from the February marker of about 2.6 months. February 2023, that was. So, just some additional data for the folks out there.
