U.S. sales of existing homes have plummeted by greater than one-third since 2021, as most households can afford neither the price of an existing home, nor the financing costs to purchase one. The year 2024, if the pronounced trend continues, will have the lowest level of existing home sales since 1995.
In 2021, there were 6.12 million existing homes sold in the United States. That fell to 5.03 million the next year, and that level is on target to be about 3.98 million in 2024, a drop of 35% since 2021.
One sign of what is happening is that average existing home prices in many of America’s major cities have risen to levels beyond what a household can afford: in Miami, $550,000; in Boston, $748,000; in New York City, $758,000; and in San Francisco, $1.26 million. Some of that is due to the fact that private equity funds, and similar institutions loaded with cash from speculative activities, are reportedly buying up as much as 50-60% of all homes put on the market in portions of cities. Some of the homes are resold, some are rented, but using the same algorithms, they cause home prices to increase by the same percent, forcing a whole layer of families out of the housing market.
