January 17, 2012 (Chris Moore)

Weekly existing home sales volume fell for the first time in four weeks, but just barely, while home prices continued to hold steady for the fourth consecutive week according to the National Home Sales Snapshot released by DataQuick.

There were 160,426 properties sold over the previous thirty day rolling period ending January 12th, down 0.4 percent from the previous week’s total of 160,998 properties sold, but 3.3 percent higher than the 155,305 properties sold four weeks ago.

Last week’s home sales volume was 0.5 percent higher than the 159,549 homes sold during same period a year ago and 6.4 percent higher than during the same period three years ago when 150,724 homes were sold.

The median price of a home sold over the same thirty day rolling period ending January 12th remained virtually unchanged from last week, falling by only $150 to $179,750 from $179,900. Home prices have fluctuated within a narrow $250 range over the last four weeks.

Home prices were 5.4 percent lower than the same period a year ago when the median price of a home was $190,000 and were 11.5 percent lower than the same period three years ago when the median price was $203,000.

Over the last five years, median home prices nationwide have ranged from a high of $275,000 to a low of $170,000.

Sales volume for a thirty day period within the last five years has ranged from a high of 339,669 properties sold to a low of 119,636.

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