Despite high prices and mortgage rates, existing-home sales in the last three months of 2024 “showed solid recovery,” according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Sales grew by 2.2% in December from the month before to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.24 million. That’s the highest growth rate since February 2024, according to NAR’s data.
Regionally, there’s some variance: existing-home sales saw the biggest increase from November – 3.9% – in the Northeast, followed by 3.2% in the South and 2.6% in the West. In the Midwest, however, sales dropped by 1% in December 2024 from the month prior.
Overall, sales were up 9.3% from a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.88 million a year earlier, which is the largest year-over-year gain since June 2021, when existing-home sales grew by 23% from the year before. The median existing home sales price in December 2024 was $404,400, up 6.0% from December 2023.
The sales price increase marks 18 months of year-over-year price increases and the biggest year-over-year growth since October 2022, when prices grew by 6.5% from the prior year.
“Home sales during the winter are typically softer than the spring and summer, but momentum is rising with sales climbing year-over-year for three straight months,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, in a release. Noting that consumers “clearly understand the long-term benefits of homeownership,” Yun added that job and wage gains and increased inventory are having a positive impact on the market.
The inventory of unsold existing homes dropped 13.5% from the previous month to 1.15 million at the end of December, which amounts to 3.3 months’ supply at the current monthly sales pace, NAR noted. Inventory was up 16.2% from 990,000 unsold existing homes in December 2023.
Still, on an annual basis, existing home sales were at 4.06 million, their lowest level since 1995. Meanwhile, the median price reached a record high of $407,500 in 2024, but there’s a reason for that.
“The median home price was elevated partly due to the upper-end market’s relative better performance,” explained Yun. “Sales rose by 35% from a year ago for homes priced above $1 million, while sales fell for homes priced under $250,000.”
The median existing-home price in the Northeast was $478,900, up 11.8% from last year; in the Midwest was $298,600, up 9.0% from December 2023; in the South was $361,800, up 3.4% from the prior year; and in the West was $614,500, up 6.0% from December 2023.
Properties remained on the market for an average of 35 days in December, up from 32 days in November and 29 days in December 2023, according to NAR. First-time buyers purchased slightly more – 31% – existing homes in December, up from 30% in November 2024 and 29% in December 2023.
