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.
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