Non-distressed home sales jump while prices continue to rise

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its June report Sales slip but prices continue to roll on existing home sales this week.

Highlights are:
NAR reported that total existing home sales in June dipped 1% from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.1 million, up 15% over the June 2012 number. Distressed sales – foreclosures and short sales – dropped from 18% of the total in May to 15% in June, and were sharply down from 26% a year ago.
As the following table shows, non-distressed sales, therefore, actually jumped by almost a third year over year:

Source: NAR, Oliver Reports

The median price of a Single Family Home (SFH) was $214,700, up 13% from a year ago. In the Northeast the median price was $270,400, up 7% from last year.

Housing inventory – supply – increased from 5.0 months in May to 5.2 months in June, compared with a year ago when supply was 6.4 months. Thus inventory remains below the 6 months generally regarded as representing a market in balance between buyers and sellers.

First-time home buyers accounted for 29% of June’s purchases, down from 32% a year ago. According to the NAR: “First-time buyers should be closer to 40 percent of the market, but they’re held back by the frictions of tight credit and very limited inventory in the lower price ranges in most of the U.S.”

Nationally, sales of condos were down 2% from May, but up 21% from a year ago, while the median price increased 15% year on year.