Prices Rise, Inventory Falls
but Sales Stay High as Spring Approaches
The median home price reached $291,000 in February – the highest in the 13-year history of the report – while sales set a new high for the month and inventory continued to drop to record lows.
The record February home sales were up 5.7% year over year, but the increase over January was flat at 0.3%. The February-over-January average for the previous five years has been 5.4% in the ramp-up toward the seasonally higher sales of spring.
The Median Sales Price across the report’s 53 metro areas topped the previous high of $290,000 reached in August and tied in October and December during last year’s housing surge. In February of last year, the Median Sales Price was $260,000.
At the same time, February’s Months Supply of Inventory was down 11.9% from January’s and 42% year-over-year, as buyers continued to close on properties in greater numbers than sellers opted to list their homes. Inventory has declined month over month for 20 of the past 21 months.
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