Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes dipped in March as the
supply remained tight. But the sales pace remained ahead of last year’s.
The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales
dipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.92 million, from 4.95 million
in February. February’s figure was revised lower.
Sales in March were 10.3 percent higher than a year earlier.
Sales have remained mostly unchanged in the past four months —
largely, analysts say, because of a limited supply of homes. Economists still
expect the housing market to continue recovering this year.
The low supply, combined with rising demand for housing, could
accelerate construction in coming months. The Realtors’ group said buyer
traffic is 25 percent higher than it was a year ago.
“A disappointing result for U.S. existing-home sales, but with
inventories still very tight, the outlook remains favorable,” Jennifer Lee, an
economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a note to clients.
In Lee County, the median price of a single-family home sold
with the help of a Realtor was $168,000, up 29.2 percent from $130,000 a year
earlier, according to the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the
Beach.
The association also reported that 1,123 single-family sales
closed in March, down 9.1 percent from March 2012’s 1,235.
In Collier County excluding Marco Island, the median price was
$252,000 in March, up 20 percent from $210,000 in March 2012. There were 1,451
homes sold in March, almost unchanged from 1,457 a year earlier, according to
the Naples Area Board of Realtors.
A steady housing recovery is providing support to the economy
this year. Builders are starting work on more homes, boosting construction
jobs. And home prices are rising. Higher prices tend to make homeowners feel
wealthier and encourage more spending.
Still, the pace of purchases of previously occupied homes has
been little changed in recent months, partly because of the tight inventory.
The supply of available homes has fallen nearly 17 percent in the past year to
1.93 million.
At the current sales pace, that supply would be exhausted in 4.7
months, below the 6 months typical in a healthy market.
The supply rose 1.6 percent from February to March. The
Realtors’ group says it expects a much bigger increase in supply this month as
the spring selling season began.
A larger supply would suggest that more sellers are putting
their homes on the market because they’re confident they can fetch a good
price.
The tight supply helps explain why prices have been rising. The
median price rose 11.8 percent from February to March to $184,300, the biggest
one-month gain since 2005.
The higher median price partly reflects bigger increases in
sales of more-expensive homes. Sales of homes priced from $500,000 to $750,000
jumped 25.3 percent from a year ago. By contrast, sales of homes priced between
$100,000 and $250,000 rose just 7.1 percent.
The higher prices may be discouraging some investors and
weighing a bit on sales. Investors usually seek to buy at a steep discount.
Investors bought 19 percent of homes in March, down from 22 percent in
February.
First-time buyers, who usually drive housing recoveries, are
playing a smaller role in the current rebound. They accounted for 30 percent of
sales last month, the same as in February. First-time buyers usually make up
about 40 percent of buyers in a healthy market.
One bright sign in the report is that the percentage of
so-called distressed sales fell sharply. Distressed sales include foreclosed homes
and homes in which the size of the mortgage exceeds the home’s value.
Those sales fell to 21 percent of the total in March, down from
25 percent in February. That’s the lowest proportion since the Realtors’ group
began tracking the figure in October 2008.
Steady hiring and near-record-low mortgage rates have helped
boost sales. More Americans are moving out on their own after living with
friends and family in the recession. That’s creating more housing demand.
