US existing home sales steady in August

Sales of US existing homes were steady in August, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.

Sales were flat at a seasonally-adjusted rate of 5.34m following four straight months of declines. Analysts had been expecting sales to tick up to 5.35m.

The median price of an existing home was $264,800, up 4.6% from August 2017 and marking the 78th straight month of year-over-year gains.

Meanwhile, total housing inventory was unchanged from July at 1.92m existing homes available for sale and up from 1.87m a year ago.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said: "Strong gains in the Northeast and a moderate uptick in the Midwest helped to balance out any losses in the South and West, halting months of downward momentum. With inventory stabilising and modestly rising, buyers appear ready to step back into the market.

"While inventory continues to show modest year over year gains, it is still far from a healthy level and new home construction is not keeping up to satisfy demand. “Homes continue to fly off the shelves with a majority of properties selling within a month, indicating that more inventory - especially moderately priced, entry-level homes - would propel sales.”

Existing home sales in the Northeast increased 7.6% to an annual rate of 710,000, while sales in the Midwest were up 2.4% to an annual rate of 1.28m. Sales in the South fell 0.4% to 2.23m and sales in the West were 5.9% lower at 1.12m.