Existing-home sales resumed falling in June and the median price also dropped as inventories crept higher. Home resales slid to a 4.86 million annual rate, a 2.6% decrease from May’s unrevised 4.99 million annual pace, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
The median home price was $215,100 in June, down 6.1% from $229,000 in June 2007. The median price in May this year was $207,900.
High inventories have exerted downward pressure on prices. Falling prices have kept would-be buyers from signing off on property as they wait for a better deal.
Lenders have tightened their standards on home loans, contributing to the credit crunch that is restraining the U.S. economy. Those tighter standards have priced marginal buyers out of the market and made purchasing more difficult and costly for prime borrowers.
Aside from prices sliding under the weight of bloated inventories and tighter loan standards, a weakening job market isn’t helping the housing market. The key non-farm payrolls number in the government’s monthly report on employment has gone down six times in a row; businesses worried about the bottom line clipped 438,000 payroll jobs in the first half of 2008, the latest Labor Department data show.
The June resales level of 4.86 million reported Thursday by NAR was below Wall Street expectations of a 4.95 million sales rate for previously owned homes. It was the lowest pace recorded since the first quarter of 1998, the NAR said.
The average 30-year mortgage rate was 6.32% in June, up from 6.04% in May, according to Freddie Mac (FRE).
Inventories of homes rose 0.2% at the end of June to 4.49 million available for sale, which represented a 11.1-month supply at the current sales pace. There was a 10.8-month supply at the end of May.
Sales fell 6.6% in the Northeast, 3.4% in the Midwest, and 3.1% in the South. Sales rose 1.0% in the West.
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