The pace of seasonally adjusted existing-home sales in the U.S. fell 3.5 percent from 4.84 million in June to a 4.67 million pace in July, up 21.0 percent from “the 3.86 million unit pace in July 2010, which was a cyclical low immediately following the expiration of the home buyer tax credit” and down over 25 percent year-over-year.
Contract failures – cancellations caused largely by declined mortgage applications or failures in loan underwriting from appraised values coming in below the negotiated price – were unchanged in July, reported by 16 percent of NAR members. In addition, 9 percent of Realtors® report a contract was delayed in the past three months due to low appraisals, and another 13 percent said a contract was renegotiated to a lower sales price because an appraisal was below the initially agreed price.
The median sale price for existing-homes in July was down 4.4 percent year-over-year to $174,000 as distressed sales accounted for 29 percent of sales volume, down one point from last month and three points year-over-year. Total housing inventory at the end of July fell 1.7 percent to 3.65 million, a 9.4 month supply, down from 9.5 months in June.
Existing-home sales in the west fell 12.6 percent from June to July, up 16.9 percent on a year-over-year basis on a median sales price that was 7.1 percent lower.
∙ Existing U.S. Home Sales Pace Down 8.8% Year-Over-Year In June [SocketSite]
∙ Existing-Home Sales Down in July but Up Strongly From a Year Ago [realtor.org]
∙ Existing U.S. Home Sales Pace Plunges 27.2% In July (25.5% YOY) [SocketSite 2010]
DQ data today. What’s interesting is this tidbit on mix:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/17/BUD91KO7CA.DTL
Thanks for the link.
As has been true throughout the housing downturn, coastal counties with easy access to job centers performed better than those in outlying regions. The median for San Francisco resales was virtually flat at $715,000 versus $714,500 a year earlier. Median prices for existing homes in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Marin counties were down about 3 percent.
“There is no question that Santa Clara and San Francisco (counties) have stood out as being relatively stable, given the strength of their local job markets and the constrained supplies,” LePage said.