The National Association of REALTORS reported on Wednesday that home sales fell 4.1% in July at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.33 million. That rate is 11.2 percent below July 2005's pace of 7.13 million.
In Phoenix, the number of sales in July was just over half what it was a year ago, with 5,545 resales this year compared to 10,200 a year ago. The total was the lowest in July since 5,240 homes were sold in 1999.
The good news for sellers is prices are more or less stable - the median sales price in the Valley in July was $265,000, approximately $10,000 higher than last July. The median is $2,000 lower than the June figure, a drop of seven-tenths of one percent.
NAR said the market softening will help more buyers enter the housing market. The Republic, with their usual lack of perspective, said rising interest rates are cancelling out the drop. The average rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage was 6.76 percent in July, up from 6.68 in June and 5.70 a year ago.
What the Republic didn't mention is rates have dropped over the last couple of weeks; the average last week was 6.52 percent. And each half-percent of difference in the rate on a $250,000 home comes out to about $125 per month - slightly less than the daily cost of the Subway turkey breast combos my daughter has been urging me to eat (or the amount my wife spends on Diet Coke in a given day.)
For the full article, without the benefit of the Republic's Chicken Little routine, click here:
http://www.realtor.org/PublicAffairsWeb.nsf/Pages/EHSJuly07?OpenDocument
And if you question my attitude toward the Republic, remember what Perry White would say: happiness doesn't sell newspapers.
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes | 
