Latest home sales figures from California Association of Realtors
According to the California Association of Realtors (CAR), "The median price of an existing home in California in July increased 17.1 percent and sales increased 1.3 percent compared with the same period a year ago...". Today's Examiner also has an article discussing these numbers, but finds a way to make them look a little less rosy.
It's quite funny how a press release can be issued with some housing data and the media can spin it into something negative... Their comment about the 0.4% drop between June and July was a very small part of the article, but they found a way to include it in their first paragraph.
As you can see in the following quotes (which I agree with), this June to July shift is very common (and I have discussed this many times already this year). “Year-to-date sales continue to outpace last year's, but are moderating compared with the levels experienced earlier this year,” said C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “This is in line with our expectation that sales in 2005 will be 1.4 percent ahead of last year’s record pace."
"Historically, June accounts for the largest share of annual sales and there typically is a month-to-month decline in sales from June to July in the regional and county sales figures, which are not seasonally adjusted,” she said.
So if it happens every year, why pretend that it's a problem?
posted by Matt Lanning @ 7:30 AM
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Agree that seasonality is in play with the June to July stats, but what about the fact that CAR also reports San Francisco Bay Area sales were DOWN 16.3% compared to July of 2004?
That makes perfect sense to me. This year's prices got a little crazy in the Spring, causing buyers to back away a little bit and sellers to put their houses up for sale conditional on a particular price. That flooded the market with bad inventory (stuff that wouldn't sell unless it was at an unrealistic price) and caused a few less homes to sell. At the same time, however, the PRICES of the homes that did sell were up 11% (from the same report where you got your data).
Last year was strong all summer long. This summer felt slower due to so much bad inventory. I have a strong feeling that we'll see more of that bad inventory after Labor Day, too... That just makes for more buyer opportunity (if you do your research and find the values among the crowd).
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