March Existing Home Sales Drop as Prices Rise

March marked the 109th consecutive month of yearly gains for existing home prices for all housing types while sales dropped nearly 4% from the previous month, reports the National Association of Realtors. Housing market activity dipped 3.7% from February to March 2021, bringing March’s existing home sales to 6.01 million, a 12.3% increase from March 2020. For all housing types, median existing home prices reached $329,100 with the Midwest posting the lowest median existing home sales price and the West posting the highest. The median sales price for existing home sales in the West topped $493,300, a 16.8% year-over-year increase.

March's inventory increased 3.9% from last month, standing at 1.07 million homes for sale. Compared with March of 2020, inventory levels dropped 28.2%. This would mark 22 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.

Demand remains strong as home buyers are snatching 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 29 days.

From February 2021, all of the four regions had declines in sales. The West had the biggest drop in sales of 8.0%, followed by the South with a decline of 2.9%. The Midwest had a dip in sales of 2.3%, followed by the Northeast, which fell of 1.3%.

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