The National Association of Realtors September report confirmed what Realtors across the United States have been experiencing. Existing home sales climbed to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.55 million or 4.7% — a huge gain of nearly 8% over 2014!
This spike made up for some of August’s soft spots. We suspect the stock market’s wild ride in August set the stage for the August weakness. However, the September spike was a welcome sign that the home sales in 2015 nationally are on target to hit levels not seen since the crash. The American Dream is alive & well! Yet there are a few rain clouds in the sky…
First-time buyers seem to have lost some strength with logging 29% of all sales vs the 32% in August. We will be watching this to see if it is a trend or an anomaly. First time home buyers are significant players as they earmark future demand.
Let’s seek to the Home Affordability Index at year’s end for more insight.