a houseõs real estate for sale sign shows the home as being òunder contractó in washington dc november 19 2020 pandemicdriven demand sent total 2020 home sales to the highest level since 2006 still even the most avid buyers are bumping up against barriers in todays housing market record low supply and record high prices are limiting the exceptionally high demand closed sales of existing homes in december increased just 07 from november to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 676 million units according to the national association of realtors sales were 22 stronger than in december 2019 as unexpected as a global pandemic was so too was the reaction of homebuyers after plummeting in march and april sales suddenly began to climb total yearend sales volume ended at 564 million units the highest level since 2006 and far stronger than predicted before the pandemic buyers were driven by a desire for larger suburban homes with dedicated spaces for working and schooling home sales could possibly reach 8 million if we had more inventory said lawrence yun chief economist for the realtors mortgage rates should remain very low throughout 2021 although we may have seen the lowest already strong demand exacerbated what was already low inventory of homes for sale at the start of the year at the end of december inventory stood at just 107 million homes for sale down 23 year over year at the current sales place that represents a 19month supply that is the lowest number of homes since the realtors began tracking this metric in 1982 low supply and strong demand continued to raise the heat under home prices the median price of an existing home sold in december was 309800 a 129 increase compared with december 2019 and the highest december median price on record part of the sharp increase in the median price is that home sales are stronger on the higher end of the market where there is more supply sales of homes priced below 100000 were down 15 annually in december while sales of homes priced between 500000 and 750000 were up 65 annually sales of milliondollarplus homes were up 94 from one year ago steep competition for homes also has more buyers making allcash offers firsttime buyers made up 31 of sales they usually make up about 40 historically it also took just 21 days on average to sell a home in december it is unusual because every year during the holiday season we would see days on market increase but not this year said yun