ABC News: U.S.: Existing Home Sales Creep Up in July

ABC News: U.S. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Existing Home Sales Creep Up in July Aug 22nd 2012, 15:50 The housing market is on a slow road to recovery. Gregory Bull/AP Photo A home is shown for sale in San Diego, June... View Full Size Sales of existing home sales climbed 2.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.47 million in July according to the National Association of Realtors. Home resales were also up more than 10 percent compared to a year ago. This was just slightly lower than economist expectations. The number of first-time home buyers rose to 34 percent of sales, up slightly from June. In a healthy market, first-time buyers make up about 40 percent of sales. The median price of existing homes climbed 9.4 percent to $187,300 compared to a year ago. This was the strongest year-over-year increase since January 2006. At the current rate if would take about 6.4 months to sell all the homes on the market. A six month supply of homes is considered healthy. Existing homes are the biggest chunk of the housing market so an important measure of the housing market as a whole. Thanks to low mortgage rates this is a great time to buy if you can navigate the tight lending market and manage to get a loan.

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