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Inventory Shortage Continues to Weaken New Home Sales
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Existing
home sales fell back again in November, erasing most of October's 1.9 percent
gain. Sales have now declined in two of the last three months. The
National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said sales of previously owned
single-family houses, townhouses, condominiums, and cooperative apartments were
at a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.35 million, down 1.7 percent from the
October rate of 5.46 million units. Sales for the month, however, were still up
by 2.7 percent from the
5.21 million pace in November 2018. Sales of single-family
homes were at a rate of 4.79 million units compared to 4.85 million the
previous month, a loss of 1.2 percent but 3.5 percent higher than a year
earlier. Coop and condo sales fell even further, 5.1 percent. The annual rate
of 560,000 condo sales in November was 3.4 percent below the rate the previous November. The pullback was not
unexpected. Analysts polled by Econoday had forecast a consensus sales rate of 5.45
million. NAR's estimate came in just under the low end of the predictions which
ranged from 5.37 to 5.55 million units. Lawrence Yun, NAR's
chief economist, said the decline in sales for November is not a cause for
worry. "Sales will be choppy when inventory levels are low, but the economy is
otherwise performing very well with more than 2 million job gains in the past
year," he said.
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