Existing home sales suffer second straight monthly decline as tight supply pushes prices higher!

Closed sales of existing homes fell 3.7% in March to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 6.01 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors.

That is the slowest sales pace since August and the second straight month of declines.

Still, sales were 12.3% higher than March 2020, when transactions were falling due to the Covid pandemic.

Realtors say the monthly numbers are dropping due to limited supply. The demand is there. Homes are selling in an average of just 18 days, which is considered an extremely fast rate.

“If the demand was retreating, then we would see fewer multiple offers, but we know that multiple offers are widely prevalent in today’s market,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors.

The supply of homes for sale fell 28.2% from a year ago. There were just 1.07 million homes for sale at the end of month, representing a 2.1-month supply at the current sales pace. Diana Olick CNBC 4/26/21