April 30, 2012 (Chris Moore)

Home sales over the last month were at their highest level since mid-October while home prices continued their upward march for the seventh consecutive week according to the weekly National Home Sales Snapshot released by DataQuick.

There were 174,304 properties sold over the previous thirty day rolling period ending April 26th, up 2.5 percent from the previous week’s total of 169,999 properties sold and 14.5 percent higher than the 152,197 properties sold four weeks ago.

Sales volume is still down 8.7 percent from the current year’s cycle peak of 190,934 sales which occurred during the 30-day rolling period prior to September 1st.

Last week’s home sales volume was 1.2 percent higher than the 172,154 homes sold during the same period a year ago and was 6.9 percent higher than during the same period three years ago when 163,020 homes were sold.

The median price of a home sold over the current thirty day rolling period also improved for the seventh consecutive week, increasing by $3,400 from the previous week to $179,900 and is at its highest level since beginning of the year. Home prices are up 4.3 percent from a month ago.

Home prices were 3.7 percent higher than the same period a year ago when the median price of a home was $173,500 and were at the same level they were at three years ago. It was the fourth consecutive week that year-over-year home prices surpassed the previous year’s levels.

Over the last five years, median home prices nationwide have ranged from a high of $275,000 to a low of $168,500.

Home sales volume over the last five years has ranged from a high of 339,669 properties sold to a low of 124,051.

The National Home Sales Snapshot includes 98 out of the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas covering 66.25 percent of U.S. home sales.

Tags: DataQuick, home sales, median home price, sales volume

Source:
DataQuick