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US home resales spiked to hit 10-year high in March

Sales of previously owned homes reached seasonally adjusted rate of 5.71M: NAR

April 21, 2017 02:00PM

From TRD New York: The number of home resales across the country jumped in March to reach its highest pace since 2007.

Last month, sales hit a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.71 million, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing figures from the National Association of Realtors. That’s a 4 percent increase over the prior month.

Compared to the same period of time in 2016, sales in March jumped nearly 6 percent.

Sales are “doing much better than I anticipated, particularly in light of affordability challenges,” Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at NAR said, according to the Journal. He said it’s surprising that demand has remained so strong despite rising prices and tight inventory.

Sales of previously owned homes grew through most of 2016, but fell in December —  largely because of rising mortgage rates. Last month, the Federal Reserve increased its benchmark interest rate to a range between 0.75 and 1 percent.

Fed officials have said they expect to raise interest rates twice more in 2017. [WSJ] — Miriam Hall 

Tags: home sales, residential real estate