Signs of the spring selling season have begun to sprout as existing home sales increased for the second consecutive week according to the National Home Sales Snapshot released by DataQuick but home values fell for the fourth consecutive week.

There were 168,811 properties sold over the previous thirty-day rolling period ending February 21st, up 0.8 percent from the previous week’s total of 167,536 sold properties but 5.8 percent lower than the 179,113 properties sold four weeks ago.

Sales volume was 23.9 percent lower than the current year’s cycle peak of 221,695 sales which occurred during the 30-day rolling period prior to September 13th.

Last week’s home sales volume was 11.8 percent higher than the 151,058 homes sold during the same period a year ago and was 11.0 percent higher than during the same period three years ago when 152,140 homes were sold.

The median price of a home sold over the current thirty-day rolling period fell by $2,000 from the previous week to $190,000. Four weeks ago the median home price was $200,000. The median home price has fallen back to mid-April levels.

Home prices were 11.8 percent higher than the same period a year ago when the median price of a home was $170,000 and were 5.6 percent higher than what they were three years ago when the median price was $180,000. It was the 46th 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

Reported by Chris Moore