Existing Home Sales Jump 2.4% in July
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iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Sales of existing homes in the U.S. rose last month to the highest level since last September, a report out Thursday shows.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says sales jumped 2.4 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.15 million.
“I’m not surprised at all that the numbers are up. It’s summer time and this is when the masses want to buy real estate. It’s warm out. We had a really slow start to the year because it was just too cold to go outside and go to work certainly too cold to buy a home. So we’re catching up now,” says Kathy Fettke, CEO and founder of Real Wealth Network.
Sales of previously-owned homes are at the highest pace of this year and have gone up for four straight months, according to the NAR.
Fettke says now is a good time to buy a first home.
“There’s more inventory out there and that’s really great news for home buyers. Interest rates are still low. Home prices are up but only up 4.9 percent from last year. So it should still be fairly affordable in certain markets for people to buy their first home,” she explains.
Despite the good news, existing home sales are still down 4.3 percent from July of 2013.
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