April housing sales show a slight uptick from March results while prices are down slightly.
The REAL Trends Housing Market Report for April 2016 shows that housing sales increased 6.4 percent from the same month a year ago. The year-over-year gain was slightly higher than March 2016 results but slower than January and February of 2016. The Northeast led the way with a 15.6 percent increase.
“While the April housing report shows continued growth, the year-over-year increase has slipped into lower gear over the past two months,” says Steve Murray, editor of the REAL Trends Housing Market Report. “Additionally, price increases continue to soften as the year progresses. The Northeast region had the strongest showing with unit sales up 15.6 percent but also saw the largest decrease in the average price of homes being sold. Each region, except the West, showed increased strength indicating that the housing market is heading into the second quarter of 2016 with continued momentum,” he adds.
The annualized rate of new and existing home sales was 6.016 million which was up from the rate of 5.655 million recorded in April 2015. The results indicate that the housing market continues to show growth.
Housing prices declined an average of 0.7 percent from April 2015 indicating that while home sales continue to increase average price increases have slowed substantially.
“The housing market appears to be in good shape despite continued evidence of lower than normal inventory levels. Also, the market has shrugged off other negative news such as the decline in equity markets, low inventories and the slower rate of foreign purchases of homes.”
Housing unit sales for April 2016 increased 6.4 percent. Unit sales were up 15.6 percent in the Northeast, the best performance in all regions. Sales in the Midwest region were up 11.6 percent, the South saw an increase of 8.1 percent, and the West region had a decrease of 5.3 percent.
The average price of homes sold in April 2016 in the Midwest region increased by 4.7 percent, the best result in the nation. The South saw average prices increase 1.5 percent, the West saw price increases averaging 1.9 percent while the Northeast saw prices decline -4.6 percent.
“We now expect that housing unit sales increases will continue to be higher in 2016 than thought earlier this past year. Most forecasts believe that housing unit sales will increase 3-5 percent for all of 2016 and that average prices will increase 3-4 percent.”