Another month, another drop in existing home sales, which in March declined once again from 4.60MM units to 4.59MM. While the good news was that this number did beat the consensus estimate of 4.56MM (based on a a range of 4.50MM to 4.85MM from 75 economist surveyed), the bad news was that once again, a near majority of the upside was once again due to investors and other all-cash buyers, who accounted for 50% of all sales. That and that like last time, of course, this was the worst existing home sales number since July 2012.

 

Some of the other data highlights:

Existing-home sales fell 0.2% after falling 0.4% prior month 5.2 months supply in March vs. 5.0 in Feb. Inventory rose 4.7% to 1.99m homes 1st-time buyers 30% of total sales; all cash 33%; investors 17% Distressed sales 14% of total sales; of which foreclosures 10%; short sales 4% Median home price rose 7.9% from last year to $198,500