US Existing Home Sales Sink For 7th Straight Month

Today we get our first glimpse of the carnage in the housing market from August. With mortgage rates having soared and homebuilder sentiment tumbling (and permits plunging), it should be no surprise that existing home sales were expected to fall for the 7th straight month (-2.3% MoM vs -5.9% MoM in July).

Somewhat surprisingly, existing home sales ‘only’ fell 0.4% MoM in August (from a revised 5.7% MoM drop in July), but that is still 7 consecutive drops. This left existing home sales down 19.87% YoY…

Source: Bloomberg

That is the longest streak of MoM sales declines since Oct 2007.

The Existing Home Sales SAAR fell to 4.80mm – the lowest since

These are based on closings that likely occurred in June/July.

Despite declining sales, “we are seeing no increase in inventory on net,” Yun said.

“Inventory will remain tight in the coming months and even for the next couple of years,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement.

“Some homeowners are unwilling to trade up or trade down after locking in historically-low mortgage rates in recent years, increasing the need for more new-home construction to boost supply.”

The median selling price rose 7.7% from a year earlier to $389,500. The annual increase was the smallest since June 2020.

After hitting a record $413,800 in June, prices have fallen on a monthly basis. The August decline was broad across price points and regions.

First-time buyers accounted for 29% of all transactions in August, matching the July share.