Ten-X, formerly Auction.com, projects that the existing home sales in January 2016 will be in between 5.13 and 5.46 million annual sales, three percent lower compared to the December 2015 existing home sales, which is 9.8 percent higher than the same month of the previous year, according to the Ten-X Residential Real Estate Nowcast.
"On a year-over-year basis, it looks like January will get 2016 off to a good start," said Ten-X Executive Vice President, Rick Sharga. "It's apparent now that the November sales figures were artificially low due to delays associated with the new TRID processes, and December numbers were artificially inflated as lenders quickly worked through the backlog. What we're seeing online suggests that home buyers are slightly more active than they were last year at this time, which is a good sign for the housing market."
According to the press release of Ten-X in PR NewsWire, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that December home sales experienced a 14.7 percent month-over-month increase to 5.46 million units, after a significant drop in November.
"Putting the sudden drop and bounce aside, existing home sales in November and December averaged a 5.11 million rate - close to the 5.26 SAAR average pace that persisted across 2015," said Ten-X Chief Economist, Peter Muoio. "This supports our view that several positive underlying fundamentals - a healthy job market, wage gains, improved consumer confidence and low interest rates - have supported the housing market recovery and should lead to increased sales moving into 2016."
The Ten-X Residential Real Estate Nowcast predicts that the median price of existing homes will also fall in January, between $216,839 and $239,664 with a targeted price of $228,251, up 15 percent in a year-over-year basis. The median existing home price in December has reached $224,100, a 7.6 percent year-over-year increase.
"The lack of inventory and the mix of properties being sold - largely in the mid-to-upper price range in most markets - continue to drive home prices up," added Sharga. "At some point this may become a problem from an affordability standpoint, especially if interest rates go up as well."
