(January 14, 2013) Sales of existing homes increased for the first time in five weeks according to the weekly National Home Sales Snapshot released by DataQuick, while home prices improved for the third consecutive week.

There were 188,401 properties sold over the previous thirty-day rolling period ending January 3rd, up 0.5 percent from the previous week’s total of 187,384 sold properties but 4.5 percent lower than the 197,856 properties sold four weeks ago.

Sales volume was 15.0 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.

Last week’s home sales volume was still 12.1 percent higher than the 168,029 homes sold during the same period a year ago but was 7.8 percent lower than during the same period three years ago when 204,268 homes were sold. It was the first time in five weeks that home sales have increased from the previous week.

The median price of a home sold over the current thirty-day rolling period increased by $1,538 from the previous week to $199,000. Four weeks ago the median home price was $196,000.

Home prices were 10.6 percent higher than the same period a year ago when the median price of a home was $180,000 and were 7.0 percent higher than what they were three years ago when the median price was $186,000. It was the 39th 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

Reported by Chris Moore