Sales in the secondary housing market in the United States in January increased by 3.1% compared to the previous month and amounted to a five-month high of 4 million homes at an annualized rate, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
According to the revised data, sales totaled 3.88 million homes in December 2023.
Analysts on average expected the figure to rise to 3.97 million homes from the previously announced December level of 3.78 million, Trading Economics reports.
Resales of housing in the United States in January were 1.7% lower than a year earlier.
The median house price increased for the seventh consecutive month – by 5.1% in annual terms – and reached $379.1 thousand, updating the historical high for January.
The number of homes offered for sale at the end of last month amounted to 1.01 million, which is 3.1% higher than a year earlier and 2% higher than in December. At the current rate of sales, it would take 3 months to sell the homes for sale, compared to 3.1 months in December. It is believed that a six-month lead time indicates a balanced market, and less than five months indicates a tense situation.
Houses were sold in January in an average of 36 days, compared to 29 days in December and 33 days in January last year.
The secondary market accounts for about 90% of contracts for the purchase of housing in the United States, and they are taken into account in the statistics only after the transaction is completed.
There are 159 Ukrainian citizens in Afghanistan who have stated their willingness to return home, work is underway on the next evacuation flights, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.
“According to our information, there are now 159 Ukrainian citizens in Afghanistan who have stated their willingness to return home. We work through our embassies in Tajikistan, Pakistan and Iran, as well as through the embassies of certain friendly countries that also have ties to the Taliban here in Ukraine, in order to organize the next evacuation flights,” Kuleba said at an online briefing on Thursday.
A total of 184 Ukrainian citizens, including 41 children, flew from Thessaloniki to Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
“As promised, we are returning the Ukrainians who are stuck in Greece,” Kuleba wrote on his Twitter account.
The foreign minister said that two more flights will take place soon.
“Good work of our diplomats in Greece with tour operators, Greek authorities and others involved,” Kuleba wrote.
The Greek travel company Mouzenidis Travel, headquartered in Thessaloniki, has suspended services for foreign tourists, including those from Ukraine.
In this regard, the resources of the diplomatic service were mobilized to provide assistance to Ukrainian tourists in Greece. It was reported that on June 25-26, flights should take place on the routes Thessaloniki-Kyiv, Thessaloniki-Lviv and Heraklion-Kyiv, which will be able to return to Ukraine over 500 citizens.
Ukrainians, who occurred in the South Republic of Africa during quarantine, have asked Foreign Minister of Ukraine to help them to return to the motherland. According to the submission letter, which is in disposal of Interfax-Ukraine, there are a woman with a chronic disease who needs prescribed medicine, seventh month pregnant woman, a woman with one year old child are among those who wish come back home.
“Most visas have expired long ago…The Ukrainian Embassy in South Africa provides us with as much information as possible, but nothing depends on them,” reads the letter.
Ukrainians ask to provide them guarantees for a speed returning home.
“We are ready to undergo self-isolation under the program Diy Vdoma. But first, we need to reach home. There are our compatriots in the neighboring African countries. Why can’t they grab us together all in all?,” reads the text of the letter.
