The bitter cold blew in more than snow for January. Existing home sales suffered as well with a -4.9% decline in sales for the month. This is the biggest monthly drop off in nine months with single family homes declining by -5.1% in sales. Sales by volume are now 4.82 million in January. April 2014 showed 4.75 million annualized sales.
The December New Residential Single Family Home Sales increased 11.6% to 481,000 in annualized sales. This change is well within the statistical error margin of ±16.5%, but the highest level in six years. New home sales are notorious to be revised so while this surge seems strong, the figure to pay attention to is the annual sales.
The existing home sales headlines blare this is the highest increase for 2014. That is true, yet the increase isn't much of a soar, more of a bounce back from last month's -1.75% decline. The NAR reported existing home sales increased 2.4% from last month and are down -1.7% from last year. This represents 5.17 million homes at annualized rates.
January 2014 New Residential Single Family Home Sales increased 9.6% to 468,000 in annualized sales. This change is well within the statistical error margin of ±17.9%. This is the highest level of new home sales since July 2008. New single family home sales are now just 2.2% above January 2013 levels, but this figure has a ±20.2% margin of error.
The December 2013 S&P Case Shiller home price index shows a seasonally adjusted 13.4% price increase from a year ago for the 20 metropolitan housing markets and a 13.6% yearly price increase in the top 10 housing markets.
The NAR reported existing home sales plunged -5.1% from last month and are down -5.1% from January of last year. This is the 3rd decline from from year ago. Existing home sales are now at July 2012 levels. While many blame the harsh winter on falling sales, in the West where weather has not been a factor, existing home sales declined -7.3% for the month and are down -13.7% for the year.
The NAR reported existing home sales increased 1.0% from last month and are down -0.6% from December of last year. This is the 2nd decline from from year ago, previously not seen since June 2011. Existing home sales for the entire 2013 year, on the other hand, hit housing bubble levels not seen since 2006. For all of 2013, existing home sales increased 9.1% from 2012.
The October 2013 S&P Case Shiller home price index shows a seasonally adjusted 13.6% price increase from a year ago for both the 20 metropolitan housing markets and the top 10 housing markets. This is an incredible price run up and has not been seen since the height of the housing bubble, February 2006.
The NAR reported existing home sales plunged -4.3% from last month and are down -1.2% from last year. This is the first yearly decline in existing home sales since June 2011, a full 29 months ago. Unsold Inventory increased 5.0% from last year and represents a 5.1 months supply at current rates . Volume was an annualized and seasonally adjusted 4.90 million for November 2013.
The September 2013 S&P Case Shiller home price index shows a seasonally adjusted 13.3% price increase from a year ago for both the 20 metropolitan housing markets and the top 10 housing markets. America is now only 20% away from the peak of the housing price bubble and the two indexes are comparable to May 2004 levels
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