by Calculated Risk on 12/22/2015 10:11:00 AM
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Existing Home Sales declined in November to 4.76 million SAAR
From the NAR: Existing-Home Sales Suffer Setback in November, Fall to Slowest Pace Since April 2014
Total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, fell 10.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million in November (lowest since April 2014 at 4.75 million) from a downwardly revised 5.32 million in October. After last month's decline (largest since July 2010 at 22.5 percent), sales are now 3.8 percent below a year ago — the first year-over-year decrease since September 2014. ...
Total housing inventory at the end of November decreased 3.3 percent to 2.04 million existing homes available for sale, and is now 1.9 percent lower than a year ago (2.08 million). Unsold inventory is at a 5.1-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 4.8 months in October.
This graph shows existing home sales, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis since 1993.
Sales in November (4.76 million SAAR) were 10.5% lower than last month, and were 3.8% below the November 2014 rate.
The second graph shows nationwide inventory for existing homes.
The third graph shows the year-over-year (YoY) change in reported existing home inventory and months-of-supply. Since inventory is not seasonally adjusted, it really helps to look at the YoY change. Note: Months-of-supply is based on the seasonally adjusted sales and not seasonally adjusted inventory.
Months of supply was at 5.1 months in November.
This was below consensus expectations of sales of 5.32 million (but not a surprise for CR readers). For existing home sales, a key number is inventory - and inventory is still low. I'll have more later ...