by Calculated Risk on 9/22/2020 10:10:00 AM

From the NAR: Existing-Home Sales Hit Highest Level Since December 2006

Total existing-home sales, completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 2.4% from July to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.00 million in August. Sales as a whole rose year-over-year, up 10.5% from a year ago (5.43 million in August 2019).
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Total housing inventory at the end of August totaled 1.49 million units, down 0.7% from July and down 18.6% from one year ago (1.83 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 3.0-month supply at the current sales pace, down from 3.1 months in July and down from the 4.0-month figure recorded in August 2019.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows existing home sales, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis since 1993.

Sales in August (6.00 million SAAR) were up 2.4% from last month, and were 10.5% above the August 2019 sales rate.

This was the highest sales rate since 2006.

The second graph shows nationwide inventory for existing homes.

According to the NAR, inventory decreased to 1.49 million in August from 1.50 million in July.   Headline inventory is not seasonally adjusted, and inventory usually decreases to the seasonal lows in December and January, and peaks in mid-to-late summer.

The last graph shows the year-over-year (YoY) change in reported existing home inventory and months-of-supply. Since inventory is not seasonally adjusted, it really helps to look at the YoY change. Note: Months-of-supply is based on the seasonally adjusted sales and not seasonally adjusted inventory.

Inventory was down 18.6% year-over-year in August compared to August 2019.

Months of supply decreased to 3.0 months in August.

This was at the consensus forecast. I'll have more later.