Existing home sales declined 6.6% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.22 million, the National Association of Realtors reports. Year-over-year, existing home sales are up 9.1%.
NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun attributed the drop to “historically low inventory,” which fell 29.5% year-over-year to 1.03 million—a record decline.
“I still expect this year’s sales to be ahead of last year’s, and with more COVID-19 vaccinations being distributed and available to larger shares of the population, the nation is on the cusp of returning to a sense of normalcy,” Yun said in a statement. “Many Americans have been saving money and there’s a strong possibility that once the country fully reopens, those reserves will be unleashed on the economy.”
Regionally, in February, existing home sales fell 11.5% in the Northeast, 14.4% in the Midwest, 6.1% in the South, and increased 4.6% in the West.
The median existing home sales price surged 15.8% year-over-year in February to $313,000.
The full NAR report can be found here.
