The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of houses
fell less than expected in August, but the median home price dropped $5,000 from July and 1.7% from August 2005, for the first year-to-year price dip in 11 years and the worst since 1990. Volume sales didn't decrease as much as expected. falling 0.5% to an annualized rate of 6.3 million homes sold, not as bad as the 6.2 million concensus projection. It's no surprise that mortgage rates have been slowly sinking over the past three months.
According to the report, sales fell 2.3% in the West and 0.8% in the South. Sales rose 1.9% in the Northeast and 0.7% in the Midwest. Inventories of unsold homes rose to 3.92 million, a 7.5-month supply at the August sales pace, the most since April 1993
Marketwatch also notes that
The Commerce Department is slated to report Wednesday on new-home sales for August. Economists expect sales to fall about 3.4% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.036 million, which would be the lowest since April 2003. As of July, sales of new homes had fallen 21.6% in the past year, while inventories of unsold new homes had soared 22.4%.
Meanwhile, over at Marketwatch's sibling, The Wall Street Journal, Marketbeat is saying that
11:57 a.m.: Economists have noted a bit of disconnect between today's figures on sales of existing homes and other data from the National Association of Realtors. Richard Iley, senior U.S. economist at BNP Paribas, goes so far as to say today's figures are "suspiciously strong." He notes that the NAR's index of pending home sales is down 11% in 2006, while existing sales are down just 4%. The year-over-year rate of decline in existing-home sales is 12.5% through August, but the pending index, as of July, was down 16%. "Expect catch-up in the 'official' NAR resale numbers next month," Mr. Iley wrote.
We'll see what happens.