November 2021 Existing Home Sales Increase for Third Consecutive Month

NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this November increased 1.9% from October 2021, the third consecutive month of increase. November’s existing-home sales reached a 6.46 million seasonally adjusted annual rates. November’s sales of existing homes declined 2.2% from November 2020, reflecting the off-season bump in sales in the second half of 2020 as the economy started opening up from the pandemic lockdown. 

• The national median existing-home price for all housing types rose to $353,900 in November, up 13.9% percent from a year ago. Home prices have continued to rise, and this marks the 117th consecutive month of year-over-year gains.

• Regionally, all four regions showed strong price growth from a year ago. The South had the largest gain of 18.4% followed by the Midwest with an increase of 9.0%. The West showed an increase of 8.4% and the Northeast had the smallest price gain of 4.7% from November 2020. 
• November’s inventory declined 9.8% from last month standing at 1.11 million homes for sale, falling for the second consecutive month. Compared with November of 2020, inventory levels are 13.3% lower. This would mark 30 straight months of year-over-year declines. It will take 2.1 months to move the current level of inventory at the current sales pace, well below the desired pace of 6 months. 
• Demand remains strong as home buyers are snatchings listings quickly off the MLS and it takes approximately 18 days for a home to go from listing to a contract in the current housing market. A year ago, it took 21 days. 

• From a year ago, three of the four regions had declines in sales. The South region had a gain of 1.1%.  The Northeast had the biggest dip of 11.6% followed by the West which fell 3.6%. The Midwest had the smallest decline in sales of 0.7%. 
• From October of 2021, three of the four regions showed increases in sales, while the Northeast was flat. The South region had the largest increase of 2.9% followed by the West with a gain of 2.3%. The Midwest had the smallest increase of 0.7%. 
• The South led all regions in percentage of national sales, accounting for 44.1% of the total, while the Northeast had the smallest share at 11.8%. 

• In November, single-family sales increased 1.6% and condominiums sales were down 4.4% compared to last month. Single-family home sales were down 2.2% while condominium sales were flat compared to a year ago. The median sales price of single-family homes rose to 14.9 at $362,600 from November 2020, while the median sales price of condominiums rose 4.4% at $283,200.