**MNI 5 Things: Existing Home Sales Fall Due To Inv Shortage

--5 Things We Learned From The Existing Home Sales Data

By Kevin Kastner, Sara Haire, and Holly Stokes

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following are the key points from the January

existing home sales data released Wednesday by the National Association of

Realtors:

     - January existing home sales fell 3.2% to 5.38M vs 5.62M expected, and

December was revised down slightly to 5.56M. Annual revisions were included in

the data.

     - January resales were down in all regions, with the Northeast -1.4%,

Midwest -6.0%, South -1.3%, and West -5.0%.

     - January home supply rose 4.1% to 1.52m, but still down 9.5% y/y, to the

lowest January inventory since the series start in 1999. This allowed the months

supply to rise slightly to 3.4 months from 3.2 months in December, but down from

3.6 months a year ago.

     - Despite sales declining in January, prices are still rising sharply.

National median sales price rose 5.8% y/y to $240,500 in January.

     - NAR's Chief Economist Lawrence Yun noted that in the past 5 years, the

median home price increased 41%, while wages only increased 12% in this time.

Yun emphasized that this affordability issue is due to a lack of inventory,

driven by a lack of construction workers, weak competition, and home sellers

delaying moving due to low interest rates.

--MNI Washington Bureau; +1 202-371-2121; email: holly.stokes@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: MAUDR$,MAUDS$,M$U$$$]