By Jann Swanson | Mortgage News Daily
Existing home sales in July hit their best pace so far this year the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said today, reflecting a 2.4 percent increase from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.15 million units. June’s sales were downgraded slightly to 5.03 million units. The July rate of sales marked the fourth consecutive monthly increase but was still 4.3 percent under the rate last July the month with the highest sales in all of 2013.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, credited the slowly increasing sales momentum to stronger job growth and improving inventory conditions. “The number of houses for sale is higher than a year ago and tamer price increases are giving prospective buyers less hesitation about entering the market,” he said. “More people are buying homes compared to earlier in the year and this trend should continue with interest rates remaining low and apartment rents on the rise.”
