Record Home Sales in April

123jump.com Staff
30 Nov, -0001
New York City

Lower rates, demographic needs, and market speculation all together drive record home sales in April. The median home price jumped 15.6%, record since 1980.

The National Association of Realtors said that April existing-home sale jumped 4.5% to a seasonally adjusted 7.18 million with the national average median home price rose to 206,000.

David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, said sales had been expected to hold at high levels. “A new record is a bit unexpected, but so is the performance of mortgage interest rates which have been lower than forecast,” he said. “When we look at recent job gains, we see all the positive factors coming together to coincide with a powerful demographic demand for housing.”

Federal Reserve has been active in raising short-term interest rates however it had no impact on the mortgage rates in the last three months. Despite rise in short-term interest rates mortgage rates have fallen to 5.83% in April from 5.96% in March.

The NAR report also noted the housing activity by region and price movement by type of housing. Total housing inventory levels rose 5.0 percent at the end of April to 2.48 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 4.2-month supply at the current sales pace.
Existing condominium and cooperative housing sales also hit a record, increasing 4.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 899,000 units in April from a level of 858,000 units in March. Last month’s sales activity was 10.7 percent above the 812,000-unit pace in April 2004.

The median condo price was $223,600, up 18.4 percent from the same month a year ago. Condo sales last month accounted for 12.5 percent of market activity.

Single-family home sales rose 4.5 percent in April to a record seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.28 million from a level of 6.01 million in March. Last month’s sales activity was 5.0 percent above the 5.98 million-unit pace in April 2004. The median single-family home price was $203,800 in April, up 15.1 percent from a year earlier.

Regionally, the home resale pace in the South jumped 7.4 percent from March to a annual rate of 2.74 million units in April, in the Midwest rose 5.8 percent to a annual rate of 1.64 million, in the Northeast increased 4.3 percent to a annual pace of 1.20 million, and in the West held even at an annual rate of 1.61 million.