Sales of existing homes dipped below the previous year’s sales levels for the first time in nearly two years according to the National Home Sales Snapshot released by DataQuick while home values also declined.

There were 197,555 properties sold over the previous thirty-day rolling period ending January 9th, 3.5 percent below the previous week’s total of 204,629 sold properties and was 11.2 percent lower than the 222,597 properties sold four weeks ago.

Sales volume was 26.8 percent below this year’s cycle peak of 269,817 sales which occurred during the 30-day rolling period prior to September 12th of last year.

Last week’s home sales volume was 2.1 percent lower than the 201,715 homes sold during the same period a year ago but was still 27.5 percent higher than during the same period three years ago when 154,976 homes were sold. It was the first time since the 30-day rolling period prior to February 13, 2012 that home sales have fallen below the previous year’s levels.

The median price of a home sold over the current thirty-day rolling period fell by $1,500 to $220,000 after increasing by $500 the week before. Four weeks ago the median home price was also $220,000.

Home prices were 10.0 percent higher than during the same period a year ago when the median price of a home was $200,000 and were 15.9 percent higher than the median price of $189,900 during the same period three years ago.

Over the last seven 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 seven 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

Reported by Chris Moore