After a brief dip in April home sales, the U.S. housing market returned to seasonally high sales in May, increasing 20.6% from the previous month and 4.3% from May 2016, according to the RE/MAX National Housing Report released Friday. It was the strongest May in terms of home sales in the nine-year history of the report.
In addition, the average number of Days on Market dropped to a record low of 51, consistent with the Months Supply of Inventory shrinking to 2.6 months – both records for the report.
Other notable numbers included:
- More than two-thirds of the metro areas experienced an increase in transactions.
- The May 2017 Median Sales Price of $232,500 was the second highest in the history of the report, only behind the August 2008 Median Sales Price of $236,062.
- Decreasing 16.2% from May 2016, inventory continued to decline year-over-year. This is the 103rd consecutive month of year-over-year declines dating back to October 2008.
- The U.S. continues to enjoy rising home values as 52 of the 53 metro areas experienced a price increase.
“In May, we saw an uptick of both loan applications and home sales, which is encouraging in terms of more people getting into the market for homes,” said Adam Contos, RE/MAX Co-CEO. “We don’t expect that the Federal Reserve’s announcement on Wednesday to raise interest rates a quarter of a point will greatly affect the market’s momentum. But housing demand only intensifies the tug-of-war with tight inventories driving prices up.”
