US existing home sales soar in July to their highest level since November 2009 - Existing home sales in the US jumped to 5.39 million annualized units in July 2013 from June’s revised 5.06 million sales (initially reported as 5.08 million). Market expectations going into the report had been for sales of 5.15 million annualized units. - The month’s supply of unsold homes held steady at 5.1 in the month and remained well below the historical average of 6.4 months as tight supply conditions in the resale market persist. - The median price of existing homes increased 13.7% on a year-over-year basis, which was the fastest pace of annual price growth since October 2005. - Existing home sales have increased in eight consecutive quarters through the second quarter of 2013, and this momentum carried into the third quarter with the level of resale activity in July representing a 6.6% improvement over the second-quarter 2013 average, which marked the highest level of quarterly activity since the second quarter of 2007. The improving demand for housing, coupled with lean inventories and an earlier-reported boost in homebuilder confidence in August, supports our expectation that residential construction activity will accelerate in the second half of this year and provide a key support to overall economic growth in to 2014. There were 5.39 million existing homes sold in the US in July 2013 on a seasonally adjusted and annualized basis, which was a 6.5% increase from the revised 5.06 million annualized units sold in June (initially reported as 5.08 million). The level of sales in July was stronger than the 5.15 million sales that had been expected by the market and represented the highest level of existing home sales since the homebuyers’ tax credit boosted sales in November 2009. The rise in resale activity in July reflected a jump in sales of single-family homes (6.2%) to 4.76 million annualized units and a surge in co-ops and condo sales (8.6%) to 0.63 million, which was the highest level since July 2007. Strength was seen across the country and led by the Northeast (12.7%), followed by the West (6.6%), South (5.0%), and Midwest (5.0%). The absolute number of existing homes available for sale rose by 5.6% to an 11-month high of 2.28 million units in July. At the current pace of sales, it would take 5.1 months to clear this inventory of unsold homes, which is steady from the previous month and still well below the historical average of 6.4 months. With resale activity constrained by tight supply conditions and the share of distressed sales shrinking (steady at 15% of total sales in July but down from 24% in July 2012 and at the lowest share since monthly tracking began in October 2008), house prices continue their upward trend. The US$213,500 median sales price in July represented a 13.7% increase over the year-ago level, thereby marking the fastest pace of annual price growth since October 2005. Existing home sales have increased in eight consecutive quarters through the second quarter of 2013, and this momentum carried into the third quarter with the level of resale activity in July representing a 6.6% improvement over the second-quarter 2013 average, which marked the highest quarterly level of activity since the second quarter of 2007. The surge in resale activity in July may in part have reflected a rush to close deals in the face of rising mortgage rates; however, we expect that sustained improvement in labour markets and household income will continue to support housing demand going forward. This, along with lean inventories of existing homes and an earlier-reported boost in homebuilder sentiment, supports our expectation that residential construction activity will accelerate in the second half of this year and provide a key support to overall economic growth until 2014.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 19:23:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015