Monday, August 27, 2007

Existing Home Sales Exceed Estimates, Inventories Rise

- Existing Home Sales for July were 5.75M versus estimates of 5.7M and an upwardly revised 5.76M in June.

BOTTOM LINE: Sales of previously owned homes in the US came in above estimates, however inventories rose, Bloomberg reported. The median price of an existing home dropped .6% in July from a year ago to $228,900. The supply of homes for sale at the current sales pace was 9.6 months’ worth, up from 9.1 months’ worth at the end of June. Purchases fell 2.2% in the Midwest and were unchanged in the South. They rose 1% in the Northeast and 1.8% in the West. I continue to believe home sales are in the process of stabilizing at relatively high, by historic standards, levels. However, housing construction will remain weak over the intermediate-term as homebuilders work down inventories.

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