Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their latest quarterly report. The report covered three important aspects of the housing market: buyer demand, supply of housing inventory and single family residential prices.
Total existing-home sales (which include single family and condo) were at an annual rate of 4.97 million in the first quarter of 2015. This represents a number which is 6.2 percent higher than the pace during the first quarter of 2014. There were 2 million existing homes available for sale at the end of the first quarter of 2015 which represents a 4.6 months’ supply of inventory which is down from 4.9 months a year ago. A healthy balance of supply between buyers and sellers is 6 to 7 months. Home prices accelerated in 148 out of 174 metro areas (85%) during the first quarter of 2015. Compared to last quarter, the number of regions experiencing double-digit price appreciation doubled. The national median existing single-family home price in the first quarter was $205,200, compared to $191,100 in first quarter of 2014. This represents a 7.4% increase year-over-year.
In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending May 2:
• New Listings increased 10.5% to 2,050
• Pending Sales increased 26.0% to 1,512
• Inventory decreased 1.3% to 15,298
For the month of April:
• Median Sales Price increased 10.2% to $216,000
• Days on Market decreased 4.5% to 85
• Percent of Original List Price Received increased 1.1% to 97.0%
• Months Supply of Inventory decreased 2.8% to 3.5
