US Existing-Home Sales Increase for First Time in Five Months
- July contract signings rose 1.3% but remain below 4 million
- Despite advance, ‘home sales are still sluggish’: NAR’s Yun
While the inventory of available homes picked up slightly in July, it’s still well below pre-pandemic levels.
Photographer: Sam Hall/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
US sales of previously owned homes rose in July for the first time in five months, suggesting the housing market is poised to stabilize as mortgage rates decline.
Contract closings increased 1.3% from a month earlier to a 3.95 million annualized rate, according to figures released Thursday from the National Association of Realtors. The pace, the weakest for any July since 2010, was in line with the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.