- Existing home sales bucked a two-month slide in September, as homebuyers respond to slightly more homes on the market compared to last month. Still, existing home sales are 16% below their pre-recession average.
- If home sales are to drive up to their pre-recession levels, we’ll need to see inventory continue to pick up. While September’s increase from August is good news for homebuyers, inventory still fell 6.8% over the past year.
- Existing inventory in September rebounded from record lows in August, when controlling for seasonality and household formation. That said, September was the second lowest on record.
Existing home sales increased 3.2% in September, ending a two-month skid. When compared to the pre-recession average and adjusting for the fact that there are more U.S. households, September’s numbers are about 84% back to normal, up from 81.4% last month.
While good news for the real estate industry, existing sales are slow to come back because of persistent low inventory. The number of homes on the market fell yet again in September, dropping 6.8% year-over-year. However, inventory still looks bad when controlling for seasonality and the number of households in the U.S. Taking seasonality and the number of U.S. households into account, existing inventory rebounded slightly from record lows in August, but it’s still the second lowest on record.
