**MNI 5 THINGS:March Existing Home Sales Strong, Inv Y/Y Soft

--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 March existing

home sales data released Monday by the National Association of Realtors:

     - March existing home sales came in slightly stronger than expected, rising

1.1% to 5.60M vs 5.54M expected, while February was unrevised at to 5.54M.

March's rate is considerably strong, higher than the 2017 total of 5.51M SAAR. 

     - March resales rebounded in the Northeast by 6.3% and in the Midwest by

5.7%, but they were down 0.4% in the South and 3.1% in the West.

     - March home supply continues to be restrained by a lack of inventory.

While the month/month rose 5.7% to 1.67m, it was down 7.2% year/year, allowing

the months supply to grow to 3.6 months from 3.4 months in February but down

from  3.8 months a year ago. Though there was an increase in the month/month

home supply, this is typical in months transitioning out of the winter, making

the year/year more telling.

     - NAR's Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said that he was optimistic for home

inventory conditions to improve in the coming months due to an increase in new

listings compared to March of last year, potential regulatory relief for small

banks, building permits rising, and that construction wages appear to be rising

at a faster rate than other industries.

     - National median sales price +5.8% year/year to $250,400 in March. Yun

noted that this rate of increase was roughly twice as fast as wage gains in that

time. This is the 73rd consecutive month of price gains in the median sales

price. As inventory shortages continue to push home prices higher relative to

incomes, there has been a notable drop in lower priced housing sales. On a

year/year basis home resales below $100k have fallen 20.7%.

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

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