Trends in US Home Sales In June 2009
In particular, seasonally adjusted home sales in June 2009 increased 3.6% following a 1.3% increase (revised downwardly from the original estimate of 2.4%) in the previous month. Furthermore, non-seasonally adjusted home sales in June 2009 were 3.8% higher compared to June 2008.
Single-family home sales were 2.4% up on a monthly basis and 4.5% up compared to June 2008 (465,000 sales compared to 445,000 sales in June 2008). According to the NAR data, supply/demand balance is improving as the months of available supply at current demand rates was reduced from 9.1 months in May 2009 to 8.9 months in June 2009 in the case of single-family homes. In the case of condo/co-op sales the decrease was even more dramatic from 15.6 months in May to 13.4 months in June, representing a 14.1% decrease. There was significant variation in home sales trends across US regions in terms of size but not in terms of direction. In terms of monthly trends, the West registered by far the best performance as existing home sales increased by 6.4%, followed by the South where home sales increased 4%. The Midwest registered the poorest monthly performance as existing home sales increased by only 0.9%. Existing home sales in June 2009 increased by 2.5% in the Northeast compared to May 2009. Comparing non-seasonally adjusted home sales to the monthly levels achieved in June 2008, the West registered by far the best performance as the non-seasonally adjusted home sales rose by 15% from their June 2008 level. The worst performance was registered by the Northeast, where existing home sales dropped 1.1% compared to their June 2008 level. Existing home sales in the Midwest and the South increased by 2.5% and 0.5%, respectively, from their June 2008 levels. This month's news on home sales continue to be good but given the uncertainty prevailing in the economy, as well the suffering job market, it is premature to conclude that these trends are sustainable and that they will necessarily continue in the same direction.
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