Housing Inventories Up, Housing Sales Down
WASHINGTON -- Existing-home sales fell a fifth straight time during July (see top graph), while inventories of unsold property climbed (see bottom graph) and prices dropped.Home resales declined to a 5.75 million annual rate, a 0.2% decrease from June's revised 5.76 million annual pace, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. June's rate was originally estimated at 5.75 million.
The median home price was $228,900 in July, down 0.6% from $230,200 in July 2006. The median price in June this year was $229,200.
Inventories of homes rose 5.1% at the end of July to 4.59 million available for sale. That represented a 9.6-month supply at the current sales pace. There was a 9.1-month supply at the end of June, revised from a previously estimated 8.8 months.
MP: There are currently 4.592 million homes for sale, which is 731,000 more than July 2006 (3.861 million) and twice as many for sale as 3 years ago (2.244 million in 2004). During the 2004-2007 period, the sales pace of existing homes has slowed by more than 15% from 6.778 million in 2004 vs. 5.75 million in July 2007. When you combine slowing housing sales with a growing inventory of homes for sale, you get more than a doubling of the "months supply of homes at the current sales rate," from 4.3 months in 2004 to 9.6 months in July 2007.
MP: There are currently 4.592 million homes for sale, which is 731,000 more than July 2006 (3.861 million) and twice as many for sale as 3 years ago (2.244 million in 2004). During the 2004-2007 period, the sales pace of existing homes has slowed by more than 15% from 6.778 million in 2004 vs. 5.75 million in July 2007. When you combine slowing housing sales with a growing inventory of homes for sale, you get more than a doubling of the "months supply of homes at the current sales rate," from 4.3 months in 2004 to 9.6 months in July 2007.
1 Comments:
Mark - Do you have a sense of when the market will bottom out? I continue to believe that people will still need a place to live, and many of the non-performing sub-prime and ARMs will be bought be vulture funds or individual speculators. This in turn will prop the market up at a lower level, although stable in the coming months.
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