Existing-Home Sales Set Record
Encouraged by a robust economy and low unemployment, Americans bought and sold a record 4.78 million existing single-family homes in 1998, 13.5% more than in the previous year, a real estate trade group said Monday.
The figure outstripped the old record of 4.21 million units sold in 1997, according to the National Assn. of Realtors.
Preliminary figures compiled by the group showed that resales of U.S. homes in December also increased 15.1% over the same month the year before.
“Buyers were able to find what they wanted and interest rates were affordable,” said Fred Flick, NAR’s vice president of economic research.
In California, the number of homes sold in December rose 11.9% over a year earlier, while the median home price dipped by 0.9% from December 1997, according to data reported Monday by the California Assn. of Realtors.
The median price of an existing single-family home in California decreased in December to $198,120 from the previous year’s $199,920.
However, the December figure still marks an increase of 6.2% over the November 1998 median. The median price means half the homes sold for less than that amount, and half sold for more.
“I think California is outperforming the rest of the nation,” said Leslie Appleton-Young, the organization’s chief economist. “Home sales continue to reflect the robust health of the California economy and the overall optimism of consumers.”
CAR does not plan to release its year-end figures until early next month, but officials have said that 1998 will be the strongest sales year in two decades.
Appleton-Young attributed the year-end drop in the median price to a shift in sales activity from the higher-priced Silicon Valley to more moderate-priced areas, such as Riverside, San Bernardino and Sacramento.
In the Riverside/San Bernardino region, for example, sales of single-family homes and condominiums increased year-over-year by 44.5% in December, while the median price rose 5.3%.
Los Angeles County home and condo sales rose 6.7% over December 1997, with the median price appreciating 7.1% in that year. In Orange County, 10.5% more homes sold in December 1998 than a year earlier, and the median price rose by 11.5%.
On the national front, NAR officials said the record sales resulted from a flood of first-time and move-up buyers taking advantage of low interest rates. Home mortgage rates hovered in the 6% to 7% range for most of the year.
“The last people who saw that were the GIs who came back from World War II. . . . It can’t be any easier to get in” to the housing market as a first-time buyer, Flick said.
The 1998 national median price for existing single-family homes was $130,600, up 5.2% from 1997, according to NAR.
By region, NAR found that year-over-year sales were strongest in the South, up 19.4% over 1997 to an adjusted annual rate of 1.97 million units. In the Midwest, sales increased 17.1% to 1.3 million units. The West came in third with an increase of 13.8% and 1.07 million units. The Northeast finished with a 4.5% rise in sales and 690,000 units.
