Current:Home > StocksUS home sales ended a 4-month slide in July amid easing mortgage rates, more homes on the market -MoneyStream
US home sales ended a 4-month slide in July amid easing mortgage rates, more homes on the market
View
Date:2025-04-14 17:45:48
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes ended a four-month slide in July as easing mortgage rates and a pickup in properties on the market encouraged home shoppers.
Existing home sales rose 1.3% last month from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.95 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
Sales fell 2.5% compared with July last year. The latest home sales came in slightly higher than the 3.92 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.
Home prices increased on an annual basis for the 13th consecutive month. The national median sales price rose 4.2% from a year earlier to $422,600.
“Despite the modest gain, home sales are still sluggish,” said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist. “But consumers are definitely seeing more choices, and affordability is improving due to lower interest rates.”
The supply of properties on the market continued to rise last month.
All told, there were about 1.33 million unsold homes at the end of July, up 0.8% from June and 19.8% from July last year, NAR said.
That translates to a 4-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 3.3-month pace at the end of July last year. Traditionally, a 5- to 6-month supply is considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers.
The U.S. housing market has been in a deep sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Existing home sales sank to a nearly 30-year low last year as the average rate on a 30-year mortgage surged to a 23-year high of 7.79%, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac.
Mortgage rates have been mostly easing in recent weeks, with the average rate on a 30-year home loan at around 6.5%, its lowest level in more than a year. Signs of waning inflation and a cooling job market have raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate next month for the first time in four years.
veryGood! (61521)
Related
- Bodycam footage shows high
- Beware of these 4 scams while hunting for Travel Tuesday deals
- A Florida woman attempted to eat fake money as she was placed under arrest, police say
- Investor Charlie Munger, the longtime business partner of Warren Buffett, has died
- Could Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft reunite? Maybe in Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class
- Why Coco Austin Is Happy/Sad as Her and Ice-T's Daughter Chanel Turns 8
- 'Pump the brakes' doesn't mean what you think
- Antonio Gates, Julius Peppers among semifinalists for 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame class
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- 2 deaths, 45 hospitalizations: Here’s what we know about salmonella outbreak linked to cantaloupes
Ranking
- The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room
- UN warns that gang violence is overwhelming Haiti’s once peaceful central region
- Her daughter, 15, desperately needed a transplant. So a determined mom donated her kidney.
- Dinosaur extinction: New study suggests they were killed off by more than an asteroid
- Meta releases AI model to enhance Metaverse experience
- An ailing Pope Francis appears at a weekly audience but says he’s not well and has aide read speech
- Host of upcoming COP28 climate summit UAE planned to use talks to make oil deals, BBC reports
- Opening statements to begin in the final trial in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain
Recommendation
Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
Argentina’s president-elect tells top Biden officials that he’s committed to freedom
Mark Cuban in serious talks to sell significant share of Dallas Mavericks to Adelson family
Christmas 2023 shipping deadlines: What you need to know about USPS, UPS, FedEx times.
Finally, good retirement news! Southwest pilots' plan is a bright spot, experts say
Oil prices and the Israel-Hamas war
Margaret Huntley Main, the oldest living Tournament of Roses queen, dies at 102
Coal power, traffic, waste burning a toxic smog cocktail in Indonesia’s Jakarta