Existing home sales performed well during the past four months and aren't projected to change in the near future, according to the latest Ten-X Residential Real Estate Nowcast, which projects existing home sales.
July existing home sales are forecasted to fall between seasonally adjusted annual rates of 5.41 and 5.77 million, with a targeted number of 5.59 million, which is a 0.3% increase from June and a 0.1% year-over-year gain, the National Association of Realtors reported.
"The housing market continues to recover, despite low inventory and price appreciation that makes affordability an issue in some of the hotter markets," said Ten-X Executive Vice President Rick Sharga. "Market dynamics continue to shift to a more normal state, with fewer distressed property sales, less investor activity, and slightly more first-time buyers in the market."
This rise would be a continuation of June’s total existing home sales increase of 1.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million in June. The rise marked the fourth consecutive month of increases.
But not everyone is optimistic about the future of existing home sales. In June’s report, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said, “Looking ahead, it’s unclear if this current sales pace can further accelerate as record high stock prices, near-record low mortgage rates and solid job gains face off against a dearth of homes available for sale and lofty home prices that keep advancing.”
The Residential Real Estate Nowcast also predicted where sales will go in the future, estimating that sales prices for existing homes will fall between $238,114 and $263,179 in the month of July with a targeted price of $250,646, representing 1.2% month-over-month and 7.1% year-over-year gains.
"The sales gains made in recent months continue to point to the overall health of the housing market, having now brushed aside the externally driven volatility seen earlier this year," said Ten-X Chief Economist Peter Muoio. "While the U.S. housing market continues to face headwinds, June's strong employment gain has helped ease fears of a slowdown, and healthier wage growth and low interest should continue to fuel strong underlying demand."
