Existing Home Sales, which measures closings on existing homes, showed that sales were down 1.5%% in December at a 4.02M annualized pace, which was better than expectations looking for a 3.4% decline. On a year over year basis, sales are down 34%. Inventory continues to move lower after peaking at 1.3M in August, as it does every time this year after the normal seasonal build, and declined for the fifth straight month to 970k. This is a decline of 13.4% from the previous report. This will continue to limit the downside in home prices and sets up for a reacceleration in appreciation once hibernating buyers come back next year when rates fall further. There is a 2.9 Months’ supply of homes, which is tight, because 4.6 months is considered normal. But if you look at active listings, there are only 690,000, which means that 29% of the “inventory” in the Existing Home Sales report is under contract and not truly available. This speaks to demand, as a normal market has 25% of inventory under contract. When looking at the month’s supply of available homes for sale, it’s really 2 months. The median sales price of $366,900 is down 1% on the month but up 2.3% year over year. Homes remained on the market on average for 26 days, up from 24 days, but they are still moving fast. 57% of homes were on the market for less than 30 days. First Time Home Buyers have accounted for 31% of sales, which was up from the previous report of 28%. Cash buyers accounted for 28% of sales, which was up from 26%.