NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 3.98 million SAAR in March
Median House Prices Increased 1.4% Year-over-Year
From the NAR: NAR Existing-Home Sales Report Shows 3.6% Decrease in March
Total Existing-Home Sales for March
3.6% decrease in existing-home sales month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.98 million.
1.0% decrease in sales year-over-year.
Inventory in March
1.36 million units: Total housing inventory, up 3.0% from February and 2.3% from March 2025.
4.1-month supply of unsold inventory, up from 3.8 months last month and up from 4.0 months one year ago.
emphasis added
This graph shows existing home sales, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis since 1994.
Sales in March (3.98 million SAAR) were down 3.6% from the previous month (February was revised up) and were down 1.0% compared to the March 2025 sales rate. Sales have been very low for 3+ years.
Housing Inventory Increased in March
The second graph shows nationwide inventory for existing homes.
According to the NAR, inventory increased to 1.36 million in March from an upwardly revised 1.32 million the previous month.
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 third 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 up 2.3% year-over-year (blue) in March compared to March 2025. Note the year-over-year inventory changes have slowed sharply.
Months of supply (red) was increased to 4.1 months in March from 3.8 months the previous month. Looking back to pre-pandemic levels, in March 2019 months-of-supply was at 3.8 months, so there is more supply now, on a months-of-supply basis, than prior to the pandemic! Even though inventory is still down compared to 2019, sales have fallen even more - pushing up months-of-supply.
Sales Year-over-Year and Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA)
The fourth graph shows existing home sales by month for 2025 and 2026.
Sales were down 1.0% year-over-year compared to March 2025.
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