REAL Trends Housing Market Report for July 2014
REAL Trends Housing Market Report for July 2014 shows that housing sales increased 1.1 percent from the same month a year ago. The annual rate of new and existing home sales for July 2014 was 6.632 million units up from a rate of 6.558 million in July 2013.
Housing prices rose an average of 4.6 percent from July 2013, a slight improvement from the previous month which was the slowest rate of home price appreciation in the past six months.
Housing unit sales for July 2014 increased 4.4 percent in the South, the best performance in all regions. The Northeast saw sales units increase 2.6 percent and the Midwest had a 0.1 percent increase. The Western region had a decrease of 4.1 percent.
The average price of homes sold in July 2014 in the Western region saw an increase in sales price of 8.3 percent which was the best performing region in the country in this measurement. The Southern region saw average prices rise 4.2 percent followed by the Northeast region where prices were up 3.9 percent. The Midwest region saw average prices for homes increase by 2.9 percent.
“The July housing data show that the market has reached a plateau for the time being. Unit sales were up slightly from a year ago while price increases continue to soften. This appears to be a market that has reached it’s potential given mortgage rates, pricing and affordability. Unless and until there is easing in rates or underwriting standards, we expect that year over year results will continue to be a range of slightly up to slightly down on a year over year basis for the remainder of the year,” said Steve Murray, editor of the REAL Trends Housing Market Report. “There do not appear to be any short term drivers that will cause short term housing results to vary greatly from the pattern of the last few months.”
Thank you: RealTrends