· The level of existing homes rose 3.1% last month to 5.00 million. The figure, reported by the National Association of Realtors, more than made up a 2.8% decline during June and the rise lifted sales to the highest level since February. The figure was firmer than Consensus expectations for a selling rate of 4.91M homes. Total sales include sales of condos and co-ops.

· Sales of existing single-family homes also made up (most) of their June decline and rose 3.1%. These sales (which have a longer history than the total) were still near the lowest level since early-1998.

· By region, home sales in the West rose a sharp 9.7% (+0.9% y/y). They were up by more than one-quarter from last October's low. Sales in the Northeast also were firm and rose 5.9%. In the Midwest, however, sales posted only a modest 0.9% increase and in the South sales ticked 0.5% lower. These sales remained near the lowest level since 2000.

· Median home prices last month reversed just some of their June rise with a 1.3% decline. Nevertheless, prices were up 8.6% from the February low.

· The number of unsold homes (condos & single-family) on the market rose 3.9% from June (2.4% y/y). At the current sales rate the inventory rose slightly to an 11.2 months supply which is the record high for this series. For single-family homes, however, the inventory was unchanged m/m (1.8% y/y) and that amounted to 10.6 months supply at the current sales rate. That was still near the highest supply since 1985.

· Divorcing Money from Monetary Policy from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York can be found here.

· Signal or Noise? Implications of the Term Premium for Recession Forecasting, also from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is available here.