June existing home sales fall 1.8% to 5.52M

Home resales fell by 1.8% in June to an annual rate of 5.52 million, below expectations for a smaller decrease to a 5.57 million, data released by the National Association of Realtors Monday showed.

May sales were unrevised at a 5.62 million annual rate.

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"It is the same story," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun told reporters. He noted again that the shortage of inventories and people staying in their homes longer has caused existing home buying growth to stutter.

In addition, continually rising prices relative to wage growth have priced many buyers out of the market, particularly first-time buyers.

The number of housing units available for sale fell 0.5% in June to a total of 1.960 million houses, down 7.1% year/year to mark the 25th straight month of annual declines. The months supply did tick up slightly to 4.3 months at the current sales pace from 4.2 months in May, as the sales decline was larger than the inventory decline.

Sales declined in the Northeast, South, and West regions, partially offset by a 3.1% increase in the Midwest region.

June's national median price rose to a record $263,800, up 6.5% from a year earlier, due again to the weak level of inventories. Yun noted that when adjusted for inflation, prices are still 9.0% below their 2006 peak prior to the crisis.

Market News International is a real-time global news service for fixed-income and foreign exchange market professionals. See www.marketnews.com.
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