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Gabriella Cruz-MartinezPersonal finance writer

Home sales surge as buyers make peace with elevated mortgage rates

Existing home sales leap 9.5% in February from the previous month, reaching the highest level in a year.

Sales of previously occupied US homes gained momentum in February as buyers accepted the new normal of higher mortgage rates.

Existing home sales surged 9.5% in February from the month before to an annualized rate of 4.38 million, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday. That was almost 6% higher than a year earlier and marked the largest monthly increase in a year.

The median home price also increased almost 6% to $384,500, an all-time high for the month of February and marking the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year gains.

Still, sales were down from February 2023, signaling some tightness in the market. On the bright side, there were 1.07 million homes available for sale at the end of February, a gain of 10% from a year ago.

The uptick in inventory is a positive for homebuyers, who have long been dealing with a lack of options on the market. However, most activity seen last month stuck to the upper end, as entry-level homes remained scarce.

"Maybe the absolute low point in inventory is over," Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, told reporters in a conference call Thursday. "We are seeing more inventory showing up in the market, and consequently, maybe this is one big factor as to why we are seeing an increase in home sales: more choices for consumers."

Multiple offers are already here

Homebuyers were more active last month, with some regions even seeing the rekindling of multiple offers despite prices of homes ticking higher. According to the NAR, all four regions registered year-over-year gains in prices.

In the West, existing home sales vaulted nearly 17% from a month ago, and the median price was $593,000, up 9% annually.

Sales in the South jumped by nearly 10% from January, and the median price increased 4% from last year to $354,200.

In the Midwest, home sales surged more than 8% from a month earlier, and the median price was $277,600.

As for the Northeast, sales of existing homes were unchanged from January but were down almost 8% from a year ago. The average price of homes sold was $420,600, up 11.5% from a year ago, the largest year-over-year gain out of all regions.

"The Northeast is somewhat unique in terms of why sales did not increase ... simply due to the fact that there's lack of inventory and presence of large multiple offers happening because of lack of inventory," Yun said. "The Northeast is actually seeing the strongest price increases. So [demand] can hamper due to the lack of inventory situation."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-sales-surge-as-buyers-make-peace-with-elevated-mortgage-rates-182958706.html