Existing home sales rose 4.3 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million, marking the third gain for home sales in the last four months, the National Association of Realtors® reports. While sales grew, inventories of for-sale homes also continued to show improvement, NAR reported. At the end of January, total housing inventory fell 0.4 percent to 2.31 million existing homes for sale, which represents a 6.1 month supply at the current sales pace.
Unsold listed inventory has steadily dropped since reaching its peak in July 2007. It now is 20.6 percent below where it was a year ago, NAR reports. As home prices have fallen and mortgage rates at all-time record lows, housing affordability is at some of its highest levels on records. Source: NAR
