Home Sales and Prices Down in July

Kristin Campbell 08.23.06
Existing-home sales were down in July, while home prices in many areas were slightly below year-ago levels, the National Association of Realtors said today. Total existing-home sales dropped 4.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.33 million units in July, down from a pace of 6.60 million June. The July rates were 11.2 percent below the 7.13 million rate in July 2005.Housing inventory was up 3.2 percent, as of the end of July, when 3.86 million existing homes were available for sale. However, sales of existing homes were down overall in all four regions of the U.S. The West saw the biggest decline from a year ago, with sales down 18 percent from July 2005. As for median sale prices, the Northeast had the biggest annual drop in July with a 2.1 percent decline in price from a year ago. Existing home prices in the South rose, however, to a median of $192,000, which was up 3.2 percent from a year earlier. The price increase in the South helped to balance out the price drops in the other three regions, bringing the national median price for existing homes to $230,000 in July, up 0.9 percent from July 2005 when the median was $228,000.Single-family home sales dropped 5.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.51 million in July, down from 5.80 million in June, and were 11.4 percent below the 6.22 million-unit pace in July 2005. The median price for existing single-family homes was $231,200 in July, up 1.5 percent from a year ago.