Existing Home Sales for June

The National Association of Realtors just published the June Existing Home Sales report.  Here are the highlights:

• Existing home sales were up 3.6% from May.  This is three months in a row of growth.
• The annual rate is now 4.9 million homes per year (seasonally adjusted).  May had been downwardly revised to 4.7mm.  
• The rate is just 0.2% below June, 2008.  
• The increase was across the country, not just concentrated in the West.
• New appraisal rules went into effect on May 1.  The industry is not happy with them (takes local appraisal out of the picture in many situations).
• Mortgage interest rate rose from 4.86% to 5.42% in June.  It has come back a bit in July.
• The supply of homes for sale fell from 9.8 months in May to 9.4 months in June.  6 months is the target.
• Housing inventory is 15% below last year.
• Average house price is $182,000 which is 15% below last year (foreclosures are included).  Foreclosures were 31% of all sales.

Certainly we are starting to see a pickup in our residential business.

Here's the full story.