More 2003 Stats

These are from NAR

There were a total of 6,100,000 existing-home sales in 2003, up 9.6 percent from the previous record of 5,566,000 in 2002. NAR began tracking the sales series in 1968.

Existing-home sales increased 6.9 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate* of 6.47 million units from a level of 6.05 million units in November. Last month’s sales activity was 8.9 percent higher than the 5.94-million unit level in December 2002 and was second only to a record 6.68 million-unit pace in September 2003.

Housing inventory levels fell 7.3 percent at the end of December with 2.30 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 4.3-month supply at the current sales pace. However, inventories were 8.0 percent higher than December 2002 when there were 2.13 million homes available.

The national median existing-home price was $173,200 in December, up 6.7 percent from December 2002 when the median price was $162,400. The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

For all of 2003, the median price was $169,900, up 7.5 percent from a median of $158,100 in 2002. This is the strongest annual increase since 1980 when the median price rose 11.7 percent.

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Midwest jumped 9.4 percent from November to an annual rate of 1.39 million units in December, and were 3.7 percent above December 2002. The median price in the Midwest was $141,900, up 3.4 percent from a year ago.

In the Northeast, existing-home sales rose 2.9 percent from November to a pace of 720,000 units in December, and were 9.1 percent higher than December 2002. The median existing-home price in the Northeast was $192,600, up 11.4 percent from a year earlier.

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