U.S. Existing Home Sales Rebound More Than Expected In December

After reporting a notable decrease in U.S. existing home sales in the previous month, the National Association of Realtors released a report on Friday showing that sales rebounded strongly in December.

NAR said existing home sales jumped 14.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.46 million in December from a rate of 4.76 million in November. Economists had expected sales to climb to a rate of 5.20 million.

The rebound was partly attributed to delayed closings resulting from the rollout of the "Know Before You Owe" initiative pushing a portion of November's would-be transactions into December's figure.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said, "While the carryover of November's delayed transactions into December contributed greatly to the sharp increase, the overall pace taken together indicates sales these last two months maintained the healthy level of activity seen in most of 2015."

"Additionally, the prospect of higher mortgage rates in coming months and warm November and December weather allowed more homes to close before the end of the year," he added.

The report said the median existing-home price for all housing types in December was $224,100, up 1.9 percent from $220,000 in November and up 7.6 percent from $208,200 a year ago.

Total housing inventory tumbled 12.3 percent to 1.79 million existing homes available for sale at the end of December compared to the 2.04 million available for sale at the end of November.

The unsold inventory represents 3.9 months of supply at the current sales pace, down from 5.1 months in November and the lowest since January of 2005

NAR also said single-family home sales jumped 16.1 percent to a rate of 4.82 million, while existing condominium and co-op sales climbed 4.9 percent to a rate of 640,000.

Next Wednesday, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release its report on new home sales in the month of December.