November 26, 2012 (Chris Moore)

Sales of existing homes across the nation fell for the third consecutive week, but at a slower pace compared to the two previous weeks, while home prices improved for the first time in over a month according to the weekly National Home Sales Snapshot released by DataQuick.

There were 203,283 properties sold over the previous thirty-day rolling period ending November 22nd, down 0.6 percent from the previous week’s total of 204,419 sold properties and 3.7 percent lower than the 211,024 properties sold four weeks ago.

Sales volume was 8.3 percent lower than the current year’s cycle peak of 221,695 sales which occurred during the 30-day rolling period prior to September 13th and were back at the levels seen in mid-June.

Last week’s home sales volume was still 13.4 percent higher than the 179,330 homes sold during the same period a year ago but was 3.1 percent lower than during the same period three years ago when 209,698 homes were sold.

The median price of a home sold over the current thirty-day rolling period increased by $2,000 from the previous week to $197,000. It was the first time in five weeks that home values have improved from the previous week.

Home prices were 9.4 percent higher than the same period a year ago when the median price of a home was $180,000 and were 5.6 percent higher than what they were three years ago when the median price was $186,500. It was the 32nd consecutive week that year-over-year home prices surpassed the previous year’s levels.

Over the last five years, median home prices nationwide have ranged from a high of $275,000 to a low of $168,500.

Home sales volume over the last five years has ranged from a high of 339,669 properties sold to a low of 124,051.

The National Home Sales Snapshot includes 98 out of the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas covering 66.25 percent of U.S. home sales.

Tags: DataQuick, home sales, median home price, sales volume

Source:
DataQuick