Quikrete Industry Dashboard

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that existing-home sales fell for a 12th straight month in January 2023.

The latest version of the Quikrete Industry Dashboard also shows declines for total housing starts and single-family housing starts. 

Those looking for mores positive signs among major industry data points might do well to look at the 3.4 percent unemployment rate, and the year-over-year gain in NAICS 444 sales in January. (NAICS 44413 sales were up year over year in December, the latest month for which hardware-store sales data is available.)

The latest data from the NAR shows total existing-home sales, including completed transactions for single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops, slipped by 0.7% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4 million in January.

On a year-over-year basis, existing-home sales plunged 36.8% from 6.34 million in January 2022.

The good news, perhaps, is that the market could be reaching its low point.

“Home sales are bottoming out,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Prices vary depending on a market’s affordability, with lower-priced regions witnessing modest growth and more expensive regions experiencing declines.”

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Coming next: The New York-based Conference Board, an economic think tank, will release the Consumer Confidence Index for February on Feb. 28.