Existing-Home Sales Decline Due to COVID-19
The coronavirus has made its mark on the world economy; now it has hit U.S. existing-home sales. Sales declined 8.5% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.27 million, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). However, year-over-year sales are up 0.8% since March 2019. This is the ninth straight month of YOY sales increases.
According to Wells Fargo Securities, home sales saw the largest decline since 2015, but "April will show a much more precipitous decline, as it was extremely difficult to show a home and listings plummeted."
Despite the sharp decline in sales, the median sales price jumped 8% to $280,600 in March from March 2019. This was the 97th consecutive month of a YOY price increase. "Unfortunately, we knew home sales would wane in March due to the coronavirus outbreak," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, in a release. "More temporary interruptions to home sales should be expected in the next couple of months, though home prices will still likely rise."
Properties were on the market for 29 days in March, down from 36 in February and the same timeframe from March 2019. Just over half of the homes sold in March were on the market for less than a month. All four regions saw home sales decline from February; the South and Midwest had YOY sale increases.
-Michael Miller, managing editor
