Home prices keep rising amid 'sluggish' sales: NAR report

(TND) — Home prices remain high, while home sales remain “sluggish.”

The National Association of Realtors announced this week that month-to-month sales of existing homes improved in July, though sales volume was still down 2.5% from last summer.

July snapped a streak of four consecutive months of lower sales volume, but the housing market remained suppressed by high prices and high mortgage rates.

NAR said the median sales price for existing homes in July saw year-over-year gains for the 13th consecutive month.

The typical home price is now $422,600 – up about 4% from last year, up 16% in the last three years, and up 50% in the last five years.

A typical home would’ve cost $280,400 in July 2019, according to historical NAR data.

"Despite the modest gain, home sales are still sluggish," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a news release Thursday. "But consumers are definitely seeing more choices, and affordability is improving due to lower interest rates."

Earlier this month, mortgage rates plunged and are now lingering just under 6.5%, according to Freddie Mac.

A typical 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has been as high as 7.79% within the last year.

But Freddie Mac said this week that it expects rates to gently slope downward through the end of the year.

Total housing inventory registered at the end of July was 1.33 million units, up 0.8% from June and 19.8% from a year ago, according to NAR.

Unsold inventory sits at a four-month supply at the current pace.

A six-month supply of homes has usually been considered a balanced market. More supply than that favors buyers, Bankrate housing expert Jeff Ostrowski previously told The National Desk.

“By any historic definition, I would say we're still in a pretty strong seller's market,” Ostrowski said last month.

Median existing-home prices in the Northeast in July reached $505,100, up 8.3% from last year.

In the Midwest, prices hit $321,300, up 4.5% from July 2023.

In the South, the typical home now costs $372,500, up 2.3% compared to a year ago.

In the West, median existing-home prices hit $629,500, up 3.4% from last July.

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