The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) recently released its monthly “Housing Minute” for June 2019. This “Minute” is basically a clipped data report on housing sales, pricing and overall growth/demand.
Here is an overview of NAR’s June 2019 Housing Minute data:
- Pending sales had a 1.1% uptick on a month-to-month basis. Last year at this time, pending sales stood at -0.7%.
- Existing sales increased +2.5% m/m though existing sales were down -1.1% from last year. More specifically, existing sales stood at 5.43M in June 2019, well below the peak of 7.2M in September 2005.
- Median sales price equaled $277,700 in June 2019, an increase of +4.8%.
- 32% of all buyers were First Time Buyers.
- 19% of all sales were Cash Sales, a decrease from21% in May 2019.
- Overall home price growth came in at +2.7%.
- DOM stood at 26.
- There was an increase of +2.7% active listings from last year.
- Housing starts were down -5% from one year ago, very much below the net household formation of 1.4M in 2018.
Also, according to the US Census Bureau, construction spending decreased -0.8% in June, or -6.3% from one year ago, for the fifth straight month.
One key data point to consider when looking at housing projections is job growth. Here are the states with the strongest job growth figures for May 2019 compared with one year ago at that same time:
- +3.9% – Nevada
- +2.9% – Utah
- +2.6% – Washington
- +2.6% – Arizona
- +2.4% – Florida
- +2.4% – Texas
- +2.3% – Idaho
- +1.9% – New Mexico
- +1.9% – Oregon
- +1.9% – Alabama
Also, consider states with the largest share of employment in real estate personnel and in rental and leasing areas from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
- 7% – Florida
- 6% – New Jersey
- 4% – Colorado
- 3% – Nevada
- 2% – Utah
- 2% – Arizona
- 1% – Wyoming
- 5% – Montana
