December’s existing homes sales best in 6 years

By Dees Stribling | MHN Online

The National Association of Realtors reported on Thursday that total U.S. existing home sales increased in December by 1 percent to an annualized rate of 4.87 million units – that includes single family, townhouses, condos, and co-ops — from 4.82 million units in November. That’s 0.6 percent below the 4.9 million-unit level in December 2012.

For all of 2013, there were 5.09 million sales, which is 9.1 percent higher than for all of 2012. It was the strongest annual performance for the housing market since 2006, when sales reached an unsustainably high level of 6.48 million units, just before everything went pop.

Inventories were down for the month, but up for year, according to the Realtors. Total housing inventory at the end of December fell by 9.3 percent to 1.86 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 4.6-month supply at the current sales pace, down from 5.1 months in November. Unsold inventory is 1.6 percent above a year ago, when there was a 4.5-month supply.