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Despite the fact that in the first month of the year, sales of used homes in the United States reported a decline of 0.7%, this Tuesday a new report from the National Association of Real Estate Agents (NAR) highlighted that the increase was 14.5% in the month of February.
These figures represent the first increase of the year, after consecutive falls. The change is due to the fact that the real estate market it was very moved by the fall in mortgage rates causing buyers to rush sales.
In this sense, the economist and head of NAR, Lawrence Yun pointed out that “with the changes in mortgage rates, home buyers are taking advantage of any decline,” he said.
According to S&P CoreLogic’s Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, the decline averaged 1.1%, data revealed in December of last year. Therefore, Yun highlighted that “we are seeing stronger sales gains in areas where home prices are declining and local economies are adding jobs“, he indicated.
However, the real estate market does not move in the same way, according to the economist “Prices vary according to the affordability of a market, with lower priced regions experiencing modest growth and more expensive regions experiencing declines,” he said.
This week it was also revealed that housing construction in the United States increased by 9.8% in the month of February, according to the latest Housing starts report. However, he stated in the analysis that this increase is still 18.4% less than in 2022, when mortgage rates increased between May and July, causing construction to suffer sharp falls.
Keep reading:
- Mortgage rates increased by 6.8% in recent weeks
- US home prices: 10 states where costs rose the most in February