Existing Home Sales Hit 8-Year High In US Market; First-Time Buyers Squeezed Out

Existing Home sales hit 8-year high in US Market however the first-time buyers have squeezed out. It seems that potential buyers are scared to acquire their first home despite the low interest rate.

CS Monitor reports that the real estate market has been on a stable upswing this summer. Records show that there is an increase of 2% in terms of the sales of existing home, thus an annualized pace this July sums up to a figure of 5.59 million.

This data has been released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Thursday. It says that the "single-family home" sales took the lead, with an increase rate of 2.7%. The increase has been solid and steady for 3 consecutive months already. This is by far the highest annualized rate since 2007. In addition, the month of July has the highest, marking a 10.3% increase. This shows that the sales have been increasing for the last 10 months. Year after year, the records show a progressive increase on sales in the real estate market.

It is also reported that home prices have increased, showing a "continuing an unbroken three-and-a-half year streak of increases." In July, the median price for an existing family house was $234,000.00. In comparison to last year's median price, it shows a 5.6% increase.

However, there are some factors that are affecting the market's future health. Two of these factors are:the "pending home sales fell in June, suggesting that sales could hit a rough patch in the coming months." And the second one is that, the first-time buyer has been decreasing for the last two months.

"The fact that first-time buyers represented a lower share of the market compared to a year ago even though sales are considerably higher is indicative of the challenges many young adults continue to face," NAR chief economist Laurence Yun explained the second factor.

Sky News says that the probable reason why the first-time buyers rate is slowly declining is may be because of the "tight housing supplies and rising prices." It has been observed that the rate in this bracket has been down to its lowest level since January this year. The decline shows a figure of 28 % in June from 30 % in January. Last year's lowest share was down only to 29%.

To date, the total inventory as reflected in the data for single-family homes including condos and co-ops has gone down to .04% to 2.24 million last month. The figure has decreased 4.2% from last year's report.