A “for sale” sign outside a house in the Capitol Hill district of Washington, DC, United States, Tuesday August 12, 2025.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty images
Sales of previously owned houses increased by 2% in July, against June to 4.01 million units, according to the Middle and annualized base, according to the National Association of Realtors. Housing analysts expected a slight drop. Sales was greater than 0.8% in July 2024.
These sales are counted by closures, contacts are therefore probably signed in May and June, when the average rate of the 30 -year fixed mortgage was decreasing. This rate exceeded 7% briefly in May, then ended June 6.67%, according to MortGage News Daily.
There were 1.55 million houses for sale at the end of July, an increase of 15.7% compared to the same month of last year. At the current sale rate, this represents an offer of 4.6 months. A 6 -month supply is considered balanced between the buyer and the seller.
The inventory has now been at the highest level since May 2020 but still well below early years.
More inventory clearly consists of pressure on prices. The median price of an existing house sold in July was $ 422,400, an increase of 0.2% compared to the same month a year earlier and a record price for the month of July. Prices are higher each year in the last 25 months, but the market could now be at an inflection point.
“The improvement always as much of the light of the affordability of the accommodation rises sales of houses,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of NAR. “Salaries growth comfortably exceeds the growth in house prices and buyers have more choices.”
Yun has noted that condominium sales have increased in the South, where prices have dropped in the past year.
The activity continues to be the highest on the upper end of the market. House sales at the price of more than $ 1 million increased by 7.1% from one year to the next, while sales at $ 100,000 and $ 250,000 dropped by 0.1%. House sales of less than $ 100,000 dropped by 8%.
He now takes more time to sell houses. The average house in July was sold in 28 days, against 24 days the previous year. The first buyers also fell slightly, representing 28% of sales, against 30% in June and 29% in July 2024.
Investors represented 20% of all transactions, compared to 13% in July 2024. This could be due to the increase in supply.
Mortgage rates are still relatively high, the share of buyers of all cash increased to 31% of transactions compared to 27% the previous year.
“This is unusually high,” said Yun, noting that stock market wealth or wealth of housing could be contributory factors.