December 17, 2012 (Chris Moore)

Sales of existing homes over the last thirty day period fell below the 200,000 mark for the first time since the middle of June while home prices continued to hold firm according to the weekly National Home Sales Snapshot released by DataQuick.

There were 197,856 properties sold over the previous thirty-day rolling period ending December 13th, down 2.9 percent from the previous week’s total of 203,786 sold properties and 3.2 percent lower than the 204,419 properties sold four weeks ago.

Sales volume was 10.8 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 still14.8 percent higher than the 172,336 homes sold during the same period a year ago but was 9.0 percent lower than during the same period three years ago when 217,488 homes were sold.

The median price of a home sold over the current thirty-day rolling period increased by $500 from the previous week to $196,000. Four weeks ago the median home price was $195,000.

Home prices were 9.8 percent higher than the same period a year ago when the median price of a home was $178,500 and were 5.1 percent higher than what they were three years ago when the median price was $186,500. It was the 35th 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