National Housing Market Conditions, 1st Quarter 2015

Key Findings

• The month's supply of new homes on the market (5.1 months) and for existing homes (4.6 months) remains below the historic average of 6 months, an impediment to a stronger housing market recovery.

• Sales of new single-family homes were up 9 percent from the previous quarter and 21 percent from a year earlier. Sales of existing homes were down 2 percent from the previous quarter but up 6 percent over the previous year. First-time buyers accounted for 29 percent of all sales transactions this quarter, well below the historic norm of 40 percent. This weakness in sales is attributed to stringent bank lending standards and low sales inventory.

• Distressed sales and investor purchases are beginning to have less of an impact on house prices; the former accounted for 11 percent of existing home sales, down from 15 percent one year ago. Investor purchases, which tend to put upward pressure on prices, accounted for 15 percent of existing home sales in the first quarter, down from 19 percent a year ago.

• The first quarter overall rental vacancy rate of 7.1 percent was down from 8.3 percent a year earlier. The single-family rental vacancy rate, at 7.3 percent, is down from 8.1 percent a year earlier, while multifamily vacancies fell to 7.5 percent, down from 9.4 percent a year earlier.

• The number of U.S. households fell 0.3 percent to 116.2 million, from 116.6 million in the previous quarter, possibly reflecting the slowdown in economic growth in the first quarter and its influence on household formation.