July Existing-Home Sales Smash Record
Sales of existing single-family homes rose to a record seasonally adjusted annual pace of 6.12 million units in July, the National Association of Realtors® announced on Aug. 25.
The median price of the existing houses sold in July was $182,100, which was 12.1% higher than the same month a year earlier.
David Lereah, the association’s chief economist, speculated that some of the upward sales momentum came from buyers who had been straddling the fence until they saw mortgage interest rates starting to head up and decided to buy before those rates moved even higher.
“However,” Lereah said, “given the strong underlying demand for housing from a growing number of households, it’s hard to gauge just how much ‘fence jumping’ may have accounted for the sales record.”