slowed home sales reflect decreased availability, says report

A decline in the nation’s housing stock is driving up the price of houses that are available, which in turn is having a downward impact on home sales nationally.

That’s the conclusion of a new report issued by the National Association of Realtors, showing that home sales nationally declined by 3.2 percent in January, from the 5.5 million of the month before to 5.3 million.

The decline was particularly notable when compared with national home sales in January of 2017, charting an overall 4.8 percent drop.

The sales drop was seen in all regions of the country, with the Midwest suffering the greatest decline at 6 percent, followed by the West at 5 percent, the East at 1.4 percent, and the South at 1.3 percent.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist with NAR, is predicting that the picture may improve once “multi-family supply catches up with demand,” and institutional investors with large single-family holdings put more of those properties on the market.

By Garry Boulard