Thursday July 23, 04:53 PM
US home sales rise again
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Sales of US existing homes rose for the third consecutive month in June, suggesting that the troubled housing market may be hitting bottom, private data showed Thursday.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said sales rose to an annualized rate of 4.89 million units in June, up 3.6 percent from May.
The pace was brisker than the average analyst forecast of a 4.83 million pace.
In May, sales of existing homes -- by far the largest segment of the US housing market -- had climbed in the first back-to-back monthly increase since 2005.
The June sales number appeared to confirm the stabilization, down a mere 0.2 percent from a year earlier.
"The increase in existing home sales occurred in all major regions of the country," said Lawrence Yun, the association's chief economist.
"We expect a gradual uptrend in sales to continue due to tax credit incentives and historically high affordability conditions."
The NAR said total housing inventory at the end of June slipped 0.7 percent from the preceding month, to 3.82 million homes available for sale.
That represents a 9.4-month supply at the current sales pace, down from a 9.8-month supply in May.
Prices also showed signs of stabilizing. The median price of existing home sales was 181,600 in June, 15 percent lower than a year ago but up from 174,700 in May.
"Existing home sales are crawling upward, and the overall housing market is nearing a bottom," said Celia Chen at Moody's Economy.com.
"The stabilization in existing home sales, combined with the dearth of new construction in the last couple of years, will encourage new construction."
Economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors also welcomed the news.
"The turnaround in the housing market appears finally to be here and indeed may be gaining some speed," he said.
"Demand has clawed itself back to where it was a year ago, a very nice signal that the market has not only hit bottom but is making its way back... I believe that prices have come down significantly enough to encourage buyers to start making offers. We are also seeing prices start to rise off the bottom."
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