After reporting a drop in U.S. existing home sales in the previous month, the National Association of Realtors released a report on Wednesday showing that existing home sales rebounded by more than expected in the month of January.
NAR said existing home sales surged up by 3.3 percent to an annual rate of 5.69 million in January after falling by 1.6 percent to a revised 5.51 million in December.
Economists had expected existing home sales to climb to an annual rate of 5.54 million from the 5.49 million originally reported for the previous month.
With the bigger than expected increase, existing home sales climbed to their highest level since reaching 5.79 million in February of 2007.
"Much of the country saw robust sales activity last month as strong hiring and improved consumer confidence at the end of last year appear to have sparked considerable interest in buying a home," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.
He added, "Market challenges remain, but the housing market is off to a prosperous start as homebuyers staved off inventory levels that are far from adequate and deteriorating affordability conditions."
The report said the median existing home price was $228,900 in January, down 1.9 percent from $233,300 in December but up 7.1 percent from $213,700 a year ago.
NAR also said there were 1.69 million existing homes available for sale at the end of January, up 2.4 percent from 1.65 million at the end of December but down 7.1 percent from 1.82 million in January of 2016.
The number of homes for sale at the end of January represents 3.6 months of supply at the current sales pace, unchanged from the previous month.
Single-family home sales climbed by 2.6 percent to an annual rate of 5.04 million, while existing condominium and co-op sales spiked by 8.3 percent to a rate of 650,000.
On Friday, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release a separate report on new home sales in the month of January.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
April 24, 2026 15:15 ET Economics news flow was relatively light this week even as the conflict in the Middle East continued, raising concerns for policymakers. In the U.S., spending data, initial jobless claims and pending home sales were the highlights. Business confidence in the biggest euro area economy was in focus in Europe. Inflation data from Japan gained attention in Asia.