August Home Sales Drop 2.7%

123jump.com Staff
24 Sep, 2009
New York City

Home sales in August fell 2.7% after rising 7.2% in July. The sharp decline sales and prices occur as more foreclosed homes are dumped in the market and mortgage conditions remain tight. Home builders declined with Standard Pacific down more than 6%.

[R]11:00 AM New York – Home sales in August fell 2.7% after rising 7.2% in July. The sharp decline sales and prices occur as more foreclosed homes are dumped in the market and mortgage conditions remain tight. Home builders declined with Standard Pacific down more than 6%.[/R]

A sharper than expected decline in home sales and home prices dragged home builders lower. Lennar, D R Horton and Toll Brothers edged lower. Standard Pacific Corp dropped 6%.

Jobless claims in the last week decreased 21,000 from the revised 551,000 claims in the previous week. Preliminary unemployment rate decreased 0.1 percentage point to 4.6%.

Existing home sales fell 2.7% in August according to the National Association of Realtors. The seasonally adjusted home sales in the month were 5.1 million units, lower than 5.24 million in July. Sales were 3.4% higher from a year ago month. In July home sales had surged 7.2% to 5.24 million units.

Median home price in the month fell 12.5% from a year ago to $177,700.

Unsold home inventories declined 10.8% to 3.62 million units which represents 8.5 month supply, down from a 9.3 month supply in July and 16.4% lower.

Northeast home sales declined 2.2% from July and but increased 5.8% a year ago, Midwest sales decreased 6.6% from the previous month and were flat from a year ago, South home sales decreased 3.1% from July and increased 1.6% from a year ago.

Home sales in the West increased 2.7% from July and surged 7.4% from a year ago.