Existing home sales in the U.S. showed a modest decrease in the month of March, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Tuesday, although the annual rate of sales still came in above economist estimates.
The report said existing home sales edged down 0.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.59 million in March from 4.60 million in February. Economists had been expecting existing home sales to drop to an annual rate of 4.56 million.
With the modest decrease, existing home sales fell for the seventh time in eight months and hit their lowest level since July of 2012.
NAR also said the rate of existing home sales is now 7.5 percent below the 4.96 million-unit pace in March of 2013.
The modest monthly decrease came as increases in existing home sales in the Northeast and Midwest were offset by declines in sales in the West and South.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, noted that current existing home sales activity is underperforming by historical standards.
"There really should be stronger levels of home sales given our population growth," Yun said. "In contrast, price growth is rising faster than historical norms because of inventory shortages."
The report showed that the median existing home price was $198,500 in March, up 5.4 percent from $188,300 in February and up 7.9 percent from $184,000 in the same month a year ago.
NAR noted that distressed homes accounted for 14 percent of March sales, down from 16 percent in February and 21 percent in March of 2013.
"With rising home equity, we expect distressed homes to decline to a single-digit market share later this year," Yun said.
The report also showed that there were 1.99 million existing homes available for sale at the end of March compared to the 1.90 million available for sale at the end of February.
The March housing inventory represents 5.2 month of supply at the current sales pace, up from 5.0 months in February.
Wednesday morning, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release a separate report on new home sales in the month of March.
Economists expect new home sales to climb to an annual rate of 455,000 in March after dropping to a rate of 440,000 in February.
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