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The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday existing
home sales fell 0.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate
of 5.34 million units last month. July's drop marked the longest
streak of monthly declines since 2013.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast existing home sales
would gain 0.6 percent to a rate of 5.40 million units in July.
Sales fell across the Northeast, South and Midwest, but rose in
the West.
Existing home sales, which make up about 90 percent of U.S. home
sales, fell 1.5 percent from a year ago in July. Sales have been
stymied by an acute shortages of homes on the market for several
months, although the NAR said inventory showed signs of
stabilizing last month.
There were 1.92 million homes on the market in July, unchanged
from a year earlier. It was the first month in three years in
which inventory did not fall on a year-on-year basis, said
Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist.
Rising building materials costs as well as shortages of land and
labor have left builders unable to bridge the inventory gap,
pushing up house prices. Supply constraints have largely
accounted for the sluggish housing market, but there are growing
concerns that the higher house prices together with rising
mortgage rates will slow demand.
At July's sales pace, it would take 4.3 months to exhaust the
current inventory. A supply of six to seven months is viewed as
a healthy balance between supply and demand.
The median house price increased 4.5 percent from a year ago to
$269,600 in July.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Paul Simao)
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