U.S. existing-home sales rebound in February
CHICAGO, March 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. existing-Home sales surged 11.8 percent in February, thanks to low mortgage rates and more inventory, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Friday.
Total existing-Home sales, completed transactions that include single-family Homes, townHomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased sharply from January's 4.93 million to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.51 million in February.
NAR said this was the largest month-over-month gain since December 2015. Still, February sales were down 1.8 percent year on year.
"A powerful combination of lower mortgage rates, more inventory, rising income and higher consumer confidence is driving the sales rebound," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.
According to Freddie Mac, the average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage decreased to 4.37 percent in February from 4.46 percent in January. The average commitment rate across all of 2018 was 4.54 percent.
The median existing-Home price for all housing types in February was 249,500 U.S. dollars, up 3.6 percent from February 2018. February's price increase marks the 84th straight month of year-over-year gains.
Total housing inventory at the end of February increased to 1.63 million, up from 1.59 million existing Homes available for sale in January, a 3.2 percent increase from 1.58 million a year ago. Unsold inventory is at a 3.5-month supply at the current sales pace, down from 3.9 months in January but up from 3.4 months in February 2018.
Properties remained on the market for an average of 44 days in February, down from 49 days in January but up from 37 days a year ago. Forty-one percent of Homes sold in February were on the market for less than a month.
Three of the four major U.S. regions saw sales gains, while only the Northeast remained unchanged from last month.
In January, U.S. existing-Home sales dropped 1.2 percent from December 2018, with only the Northeast seeing an uptick in sales activity. Enditem
