Steel Markets

Existing-Home Sales and Prices Rise, Inventory Dips

September 22, 2020

Existing-home sales in the U.S. rose for the third consecutive month in August to their highest level in nearly 14 years. The National Association of Realtors reports a 2.4 percent increase in sales from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.0 million and a 10.5 percent leap compared to August 2019.

The median sale price for an existing home rose 11.4 percent year-over-year to $310,600 with prices jumping by double-digit percentage across all regions. Housing inventory slipped 0.7 percent to 1.49 million units for a three-month supply at the current sales rate.

“Home sales continue to amaze, and there are plenty of buyers in the pipeline ready to enter the market,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Further gains in sales are likely for the remainder of the year, with mortgage rates hovering around 3 percent and with continued job recovery.”

Low housing inventory has been a problem for the past few years, said Yun. The situation has worsened due to soaring lumber prices, as well as shortages resulting from the California fires.

“Over recent months, we have seen lumber prices surge dramatically,” Yun said. “This has already led to an increase in the cost of multifamily housing and an even higher increase for single-family homes.”

“Housing demand is robust but supply is not, and this imbalance will inevitably harm affordability and hinder ownership opportunities,” he said. “To assure broad gains in homeownership, more new homes need to be constructed.”

Regionally compared to a year ago, existing-home sales in August jumped 13.8 percent in the Northeast, 1.4 percent in the Midwest and 0.8 percent in both the West and South.

Median prices rose in all regions with the Northeast up 10.4 percent year-over-year to $349,500 and the Midwest jumping 10.7 percent to $246,300. Prices in the South surged 12.3 percent to $269,200 and the median in the West leapt 11.8 percent to $456,100.