Existing Home Sales for September came in at a higher annualized rate than expected, with sales rising 7% month over month to an annualized rate of 6.29 million after slumping to 5.88 million in August. This was above expectations for an annualized rate of 6.05 million homes sold.
Median Price
The median existing-home sale price continued to rise in September, marking 115 months of consecutive growth. The median sale price grew 13.3% across home types to $352,800 as inventory remains tight. The positive is that it was the lowest price increase since December 2020, the negative is that the growth continues to outpace income growth.
Inventory
Speaking of inventory, total housing inventory slumped 0.8% to 1.27 million units from August’s report. This is down 13% from the previous year. Further, unsold inventory is resting at a 2.4 month supply, meaning that at the current pace of existing home sales, it would take 2.4 months to sell all of the houses. This is down from 2.7 months in September 2020.
Distribution of Sales
All four regions experienced growth this past month. Existing home sales in the South grew 8.6%, while the Northeast added 5.5%, the Midwest jumped 5.1%, and the West rose 6.5%. The median home prices grew rose across the board as well, up 14.8% in the South, up 9.2% in the Northeast, 9.1% in the Midwest, and 8.3% in the West.
