Home prices in the United States fell in July, but the lower prices also helped to spur an increase in the number of homes sold. A report from the National Association of Realtors indicated that July home sales increased 3.1%, while the median existing home price was down 7.1% from a year ago. For July, 2008, the median for all housing types – single family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – was $212,400 compared to $228,600 in 2007.
Existing home sales rose to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 5.0 million units in July, from June’s revised total of 4.85 million units. While that is an increase, it is still 13.2% lower than the same time for 2007. Total housing inventory at the end of July rose 3.9% to 4.67 million existing homes available for sale, which represents an 11.2. month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 11.1 month supply in June. The rise in supply results from a sharp increase in condo inventory as the single family supply actually declined.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said home prices in some regions could soon increase. “Sales have picked up significantly in several Florida and California markets. Home prices generally follow sales trends after a few months of lag time,” he said. “Still, inventory remains high in many parts of the country and will require time to fully absorb. We expect more balanced conditions in 2009 and will eventually return to normal long-term appreciation patterns.”
Regionally, existing home sales in the West jumped 9.7% in July and actually showed an increase of 0.9% over the previous year. In the Northeast, existing home sales rose 5.9% in July, but are still 11.8% behind 2007. The Midwest had a slight increase of 0.9%, but that is 17% behind last year. Finally, the South had the only drop, with existing home sales slipping 0.5% in July, which is 18.1% behind 2007 numbers.
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