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Economy in Brief
U.S. Index of Leading Indicators Fell Again in July
The Conference Board's Composite Leading Economic Indicators Index fell 0.4% m/m...
U.S. Philly Fed General Activity Index Back to Positive Reading in August
The current general activity diffusion index rose nearly 19 points in August to 6.2...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Slightly Lower
Initial claims for unemployment insurance went down 2,000 in the week ended August 13 to 250,000...
Inflation Rages in EMU and Hovers Globally
Inflation in the European Monetary Union in July finalizes at 8.8% year-over-year...
U.S. Retail Sales Hold Steady in July; Nonauto Sales Rise
Total retail sales remained unchanged during July (10.3% y/y)...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller September 26, 2005
The National Association of Realtors reported that with a 2.0% m/m rise in August to 7.29 million, total existing home sales recovered nearly all of the prior month's downwardly revised 2.7% decline. Consensus expectations had been for 7.12M sales.
Single-family sales rose a similar 1.9% to 6.35 million while condo & co-op sales increased 2.2% to 940,000 (14.6% y/y). The data cover sales closed in the latest and previous months, and contrast to the new home sales data which count sales at the signing of a contract.
The median price of an existing single-family home increased 1.7% to $219,400 (16.2% y/y) following a downwardly revised 0.5% dip in July.Prices are not seasonally adjusted. Prices tend to soften following the peak Spring-Summer selling season.
By region, single family home sales rose everywhere except in the South where they were unchanged (7.3% y/y) for the second consecutive month.Out West single family sales rose 7.7% y/y, in the Midwest sales rose 5.8% y/y and in the Northeast sales rose 4.9% y/y.
Housing Markets and Demographics from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is available here.
The latest release from the National Association of Realtors is available here.
Existing Home Sales (000, AR) | Aug | July | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Home Sales | 7,290 | 7,150 | 7.8% | 6,723 | 6,170 | 5,653 |
Single Family Home Sales | 6,350 | 6,230 | 6.9% | 5,913 | 5,441 | 4,995 |
Single Family Median Home Price ($,000) | $219.4 | $215.7 | 16.2% | $182.8 | $169.1 | $157.6 |