U.S. Existing Home Sales Rise 2.4% In December But Drop 3.1% For The Year

(RTTNews) - Existing home sales in the U.S. rose roughly in line with economist estimates in the month of December, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Friday, with sales rebounding from the steep drop seen in November.

NAR said existing home sales rose 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million in December after tumbling 6.3 percent to a downwardly revised 4.92 million in November.

Economists had expected existing home sales to climb to an annual rate of 5.05 million from the 4.93 million originally reported for the previous month.

With the monthly increase, existing home sales are up by 3.5 percent compared to a year ago, reflecting the third straight month of year-over-year growth.

However, NAR noted that there were 4.93 million sales for all of 2014, reflecting a 3.1 percent decline from 5.09 million in 2013. The decrease marks the first drop since 2010.

The report also showed that there were 1.85 million existing homes available for sale at the end of December, down 11.1 percent from 2.08 million for sale at the end of November.

The housing inventory represents 4.4 months of supply at the current sales pace compared to 5.1 months of supply in the previous month.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said, "A drop in housing supply in December raises some affordability concerns in the months ahead."

"Housing costs - both rents and home prices - continue to outpace wages and are burdensome for potential buyers trying to save for a downpayment while looking for available homes in their price range," he added.

NAR said the median existing home price for all housing types was $209,500 in December, up 1.1 percent from $207,200 in November and up 6.0 percent from $197,700 a year ago.

Next Tuesday, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release a separate report on new home sales in the month of December.