US existing home sales fly past forecasts in December
Updated : 15:18
Sales of second-hand homes in the US snapped back at the end of 2015, thanks to warm weather and as buyers faced the prospect of higher mortgage rates in coming months.
Total existing home sales jumped 14.7% month-on-month in December to an annualised rate of 5.46m units, according to the National Association of Realtors, and were left standing 7.7% higher than a year ago.
December’s print was comfortably ahead of the 5.20m projected by economists.
It also followed the largest monthly gain on record in November.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, highlighted the fact that 2015 was the best year for sales (5.26m) since the 6.38m pace observed in 2006.
The US government’s ‘Know Before You Owe’ initiative may also have pushed sales back from November into December, NAR said.
The median price of an existing home rose by 7.6% in comparison to a year ago to reach $224,100.
Total housing inventory fell by 12.3% to 1.79m at the end of December and was left standing 3.8% below the same level of last year (1.86m).
Unsold inventory was running at 3.9 months’ worth of supply, down from 5.1 months in November and its lowest since January 2005.