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Cord Moving and Storage an agent for North American  Van Lines with offices in Saint Louis, MO, Dixon, Mo, Belleville, IL and Memphis, TN works closely with the real estate agents all across the United States and the reports on existing-home sales rose in April but remain below underlying demand because of limited inventory and tight credit, according to the National Association of Real Estate  they are showing strong price gains from a year ago. This is important data for the moving industry since the capacity for the industry is directly impacted by these statistics that were recently released. “This sudden surge will create some delays in relocations if those that are moving do not plan 30 to 45 days ahead of the planned move day,” Cord’s Director of Operations Mike Scalera said recently.

Total existing home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in April from an upwardly revised 4.94 million in March.  Resale activity is 9.7 percent above the 4.53 million-unit level in April 2012.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the market is solidly recovering.  “The robust housing market recovery is occurring in spite of tight access to credit and limited inventory.  Without these frictions, existing-home sales easily would be well above the 5-million unit pace,” he said.  “Buyer traffic is 31 percent stronger than a year ago, but sales are running only about 10 percent higher.  It’s become quite clear that the only way to tame price growth to a manageable, healthy pace is higher levels of new home construction.”

Existing-home sales are at the highest pace since November 2009 when the market spiked to 5.44 million in response to the home buyer tax credit.  Total sales have been above year-ago levels for 22 consecutive months, while prices show 14 consecutive months of year-over-year price increases.

Total housing inventory at the end of April rose 11.9 percent, a seasonal increase to 2.16 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 5.2-month supply at the current sales pace, compared with 4.7 months in March.  Listed inventory is 13.6 percent below a year ago, when there was a 6.6-month supply, with current availability tighter in the lower price ranges.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $192,800 in April, up 11.0 percent from April 2012.  The last time there were 14 consecutive months of year-over-year price increases was from April 2005 to May 2006 which is good news for everyone.