Seller’s market: US housing prices hit record | Business and Economic News
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The average price of a home that existed before in the U.S. first exceeded $ 350,000 in May as a shortage of single-family homes turned into a sellers ’market.
It’s what’s known as the “vendor market” in trade.
The average price of a pre-existing home in the United States exceeded $ 350,000 for the first time in May, up from 23.6% a year earlier, the National Real Estate Association (NAR) said on Tuesday.
All regions of the country recorded an increase in prices in the sale of existing homes, with a profit of 111 consecutive months from 2012 to 2012.
The housing price cap last month was caused by a continuing imbalance in supply and demand, and is a symptom of rising wealth and income inequality as the country’s economy continues to heal from last year’s COVID blow.
The market is overcrowded with wealthy households who continued to work during the pandemic and saw an increase in wealth on the rising stock market, which helped them reduce payments. They also want to take advantage of historically low interest rates — designed to strengthen the nation’s labor market — to block sweet mortgage deals.
This has put sellers in the driver’s seat as home buyers compete enthusiastically for what they have available. But this power imbalance has sidelined some buyers who would like to wait for the nation’s hot red market to arrive.
Buyers of neglected homes combined with a shortage of inventory show that the number of homes sold fell by 0.9% in May since April, marking the fourth consecutive decline. But compared to the same period a year ago, sales rose 44.6 percent.
“Household sales fell sharply in May and are approaching a pre-pandemic activity,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a press release. “The lack of inventory remains an overwhelming factor supporting the sale of the home, but the fall in prices is just the first time some buyers are out of the market.”
First-time buyers accounted for 31 percent of existing home sales in May, while individual investors or second-home buyers accounted for 17 percent.
In a sign that large institutional investors who want to acquire and rent properties for profit remain active in the market, last month’s cash sales accounted for 23% of transactions. That was down from 25 percent in the previous month, but 17% more than the same year a year ago.
At the end of May, the total housing inventory was 1.23 million units, up 7 percent from the April inventory, but 20.6 percent from a year earlier.
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