Home Prices Rise 3%, Closings Dip 1%
Ahead of Anticipated Spring Surge
February home sales dipped nearly 1% from January, potentially setting the stage for what is typically the year’s biggest month-over-month ramp-up in sales as March typically is considered the start of the spring home-selling season. And while the number of homes on the market remained at record lows, February’s month-over-month decline in inventory of 6.8% was the smallest such decrease in five months.
At the same time, home prices across the report’s 51 metro areas started to move upward again after experiencing no such increase in January and four small monthly declines in the second half of 2021. February’s Median Sales Price of $345,000 – the highest in report history – was three percent higher than January’s and 17.3% above a year ago. Only three months in 2021 – March (4.5%), April (5.9%) and June (4.9%) – saw prices increase at a higher rate.
Despite declining 4.7% year-over-year, February’s slight month-over-month drop in sales of 0.9% was in sharp contrast to an average increase of 4.4% from January to February over the past five years (2017-2021). Currently underway, March home sales typically produce the largest monthly increase in closings each year. From 2015-2019, sales rose an average of 35% month over month from February to March, while the second-highest average month-over-month increase was just 14% from April to May.
Inventory declined 6.8% from January to February following double-digit declines the previous four months and was down 28.9% from February of 2021. Months Supply of Inventory dropped to 1.2, compared to 1.3 in January and 1.8 a year ago.
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