April 2, 2012 (Chris Moore)

Weekly existing home sales volume increased for the third consecutive week as the spring selling season continues to gain traction while home prices recorded their biggest price gain in four months according to the National Home Sales Snapshot released by DataQuick.

There were 152,197 properties sold over the previous thirty day rolling period ending March 29th, up 3.2 percent from the previous week’s total of 147,458 properties sold and 5.2 percent higher than the 144,737 properties sold four weeks ago.

Sales volume is down 20.3 percent from the current year’s cycle peak of 190,934 sales during the 30-day rolling period prior to September 1st.

Last week’s home sales volume was 5.2 percent higher than the 144,659 homes sold during the same period a year ago and was 11.3 percent higher than during the same period three years ago when 136,759 homes were sold.

The median price of a home sold over the same thirty day rolling period increased by $2,500 from the previous week to $172,500 and is at its highest level since the beginning of February. It was the third consecutive week the median price has improved following ten week’s of declines.

Home prices were still 1.4 percent lower than the same period a year ago when the median price of a home was $174,900 and were 4.2 percent lower than the same period three years ago when the median price was $180,000.

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

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 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