3rd Look at Local Housing Markets in August
The NAR is scheduled to release August Existing Home sales on Thursday, September 25th at 10:00 AM. The consensus is for the NAR to report sales of 3.98 million SAAR. Last year, the NAR reported sales in August 2024 at 3.93 million SAAR.
Housing economist Tom Lawler expects the NAR to report August sales of 3.90 million SAAR.
August sales will be mostly for contracts signed in June and July, and mortgage rates averaged 6.82% in June and 6.72% in July (somewhat lower than for closed sales in July).
Closed Sales in August
In August, sales in these early reporting markets were down 2.2% YoY. Last month, in July, these same markets were down 0.6% year-over-year Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA).
Important: There were one fewer working days in August 2025 (21) as in August 2024 (22). So, the year-over-year change in the headline SA data will be more than the NSA data (there are other seasonal factors).
Notes for all tables:
New additions to table in BOLD.
Northwest (Seattle), Jacksonville Source: Northeast Florida Association of REALTORS®
Totals do not include Atlanta, Denver and Minneapolis (included in state totals)
Comparison to 2019 ONLY includes local markets with available 2019 data!
For the previous month (July), there were the same number of working days in July 2025 (22) as in July 2024 (22). So, the year-over-year change in the headline SA data was similar to the NSA data.
Sales in all of these markets are down sharply compared to August 2019.
This graph shows existing home sales by month for 2024 and 2025, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis. Last year, the NAR reported sales in August 2024 were at 3.93 million SAAR.
The previous two months - June and July - and the next two months - August and September - will be the easiest year-over-year comparisons.
This data suggests that the August existing sales (as reported by the NAR) will likely be close to 4 million SAAR again.
Months of Supply
Here is a look at months-of-supply using NSA sales.
New Listings in August
For these areas, new listings were down 3.2% year-over-year.
Last month, new listings in these markets were up 7.0% year-over-year.
New listings have slowed and are still down 15.2% compared to August 2019 activity.
Active Inventory in August
Inventory was up 17.8% year-over-year. Last month inventory in these markets was up 23.5% YoY.
Comparing to August 2019, inventory is up sharply in Jacksonville and Phoenix and down in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. There are significant regional differences in inventory.
More local markets to come!