Existing home sales fall in August
Yahoo Finance
Existing home sales fall in August
Amanda Fung · Editor
Wed, September 22, 2021, 10:00 AM
Home sales in the U.S. cooled down in the final month of summer.
Existing home sales fell 2% to a seasonally adjusted 5.88 million units in August from a month earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). July sales were revised slightly upward to 6 million units. The results exceeded analyst expectations of a 1.7% decline, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates. The dip was expected since pending home sales a leading indicator for actual sales fell for two straight months, in July and June.
"The housing sector is settling down," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR in a press call releasing the results, adding that the surge in activity last year when the COVID-19 lockdowns lifted "was an anomaly."
Year-to-date, home sales are up 16% from the same period a year ago and up 12% from the same period in 2019. This indicates that sales activity is still above pre-pandemic levels. In February 2020, prior to the pandemic lockdowns, there were 5.7 million units sold.
"Home sales are trying to return to normal equilibrium," said Yun.
{snip}