Existing-home sales slide nearly 5% in March as the on-again-off-again housing market retreats

  • 📰 MarketWatch
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 44 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 21%
  • Publisher: 97%

Malaysia News News

Malaysia Malaysia Latest News,Malaysia Malaysia Headlines

Through the recent noise from the tax law changes and mid-term election angst, the housing market remains chronically under-supplied, particularly at the low...

The numbers: Existing-home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual 5.21 million rate in March, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. That was 4.9% lower than February’s pace and missed the Econoday consensus of a 5.3 million rate.

The median price of a home sold in March was $259,400, a 3.8% increase versus a year ago. At the current pace of sales, it would take 3.9 months to exhaust available supply, still well below the long-time average of 6 months. Properties stayed on the market for an average of 36 days in March, down from 44 days in February but a bit longer than the 30 days averaged last year.

Activity was mixed regionally, as always, but all regions saw a decline. In the Northeast, sales were down 2.9%, and in the South they fell 3.4%. In the West, which has suffered for several months, in large part because of the recent tax law changes, sales fell 6%. But the Midwest saw the biggest decline, of 7.9%.Big picture: The housing market is getting a second wind from the steep decline in mortgage rates over the past few months, although rates may have bottomed out.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 3. in MY
 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Good article - matches what we see... We buy and flip houses and we can't find enough of them to meet demand. Entry-level houses priced below median are still HOT in most markets.

Malaysia Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Malaysia Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

China's auto sales slide may be obscuring a demand shift in the industry's largest marketSome of China's automobile industry watchers are putting their hopes on a new growth trend, driven by consumer demand for more intelligent cars.
Source: CNBC - 🏆 12. / 72 Read more »