Sales of existing homes declined 2.74% from last month, according to recently released reports from the National Association of Realtors. At an annual pace, this would equal 7.09 million homes selling during the year, the lowest figure since March.
Regionally, the Northeast showed the largest loss in sales, down 7.44%. This was followed by the Midwest - down 1.86%, the South - down 1.78%, and the West - down only 1.2%.
The "annual sales pace" doesn't describe how many homes were actually sold during the month, but calculates how many homes would sell in a year if that month's sales pace continued, taking into account seasonal adjustments.
When you compare year-to-year sales, however, things look different.
With no adjustments whatever, 566,000 previously owned homes were sold in October. That is a nationwide increase of almost two percent over last year's sales. Using the "real" numbers (instead of "seasonally adjusted annualized" figures), sales were down 1.52% in the West, down 1.06% in the Northeast, up .83% in the Midwest, and up 5.24% in the South.
Many experts feel that sales were up in the South because of families relocating after Katrina.
Sales of new homes were up 13% over last October. New home sales are calculated when they are sold (when the contract is signed), whereas existing home sales are based on when the deal closes.
The new home sales report has experts in a dither. Some feel it is an aberration.
November existing home sales figures will be released near the end of December.
Regional Price Breakdown
Price Growth - Median Average Nationally, the median average sales price increased 16.58% over the last year. Regionally, prices increased by 18.07% in the South, 16.18% in the West, 10.53% in the Northeast, and 10.39% in the Midwest.
Median Average The median average is the "midpoint" sales price. Half the home were sold above that price and half below.
Inventory
At the current sales pace, it would take 4.9 months to sell all the homes currently available for sale. There has been a steady visible "trend" in housing inventory since the beginning of the year.
Inventory isn't measured as "how many homes are for sale," but...."at this sales pace, how many months would it take to sell all the houses available for sale?"
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