Existing-home sales in the United States dropped by 4.5 percent in August, marking the sixth consecutive monthly decline, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported on Tuesday.
The drop left sales of previously-owned homes in August at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.50 million units from an upwardly revised pace of 5.75 million in July, and are 12.8 percent below the 6.31 million-unit pace in August 2006.
Lawrence Yun, NAR senior economist, has expected the decline to come. "The unusual disruptions in the mortgage market, including a significant rise in jumbo loan rates, resulted in a fairly high number of postponed or canceled sales, with many buyers having to search for other financing when loan commitments fell through," he said. "Lower sales contributed to a buildup of unsold inventory."
Yun expected similar results for home sales will come in September. "Once we get through these disruptions, we'll get a better sense of where the actual market is in late fall as conditions begin to normalize," he said.
Total housing inventory rose 0.4 percent at the end of August to 4.58 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 10.0-month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 9.5-month supply in July.
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was 224,500 dollars in August, up 0.2 percent from August 2006 when the median was 224,000 dollars. The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
Source: Xinhua
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