December 13, 2011 (Chris Moore)

Weekly existing home sales volume fell almost five percent last week, but home prices saw their first increase in nearly two months according to the National Home Sales Snapshot released by DataQuick.

There were 157,494 properties sold over the previous thirty day rolling period ending December 8th, down 4.7 percent from the previous week’s total of 165,285 properties sold. Sales are down 7.9 percent in the last month.

Last week’s home sales volume was still 1.6 percent higher than the 154,494 homes sold during same period a year ago but was down 8.7 percent from the same period three years ago when 172,464 homes were sold.

The median price of a home sold over the previous thirty day rolling period ending December 8th increased 1.1 percent to $177,000 from $175,000 the previous week. It was the first increase in weekly housing prices since October 6th. Home prices have fallen 2.0 percent in the last month and are $7,000 away from reaching the five year low.

Home prices were 6.8 percent lower than the same period a year ago when the median price of a home was $190,000 and were down 15.7 percent from the same period three years ago when the median price was $210,000.

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