NAR: Existing Home Sales Fall Unexpectedly

• July 20th 2011

by Mark Wellborn

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A day after some optimistic news on the housing front, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that existing home sales unexpectedly dropped last month.

NAR reported this morning that existing home sales, which consist of closed transactions on single-family homes, townhomes, condos and co-ops, dropped 0.8 percent between May and June. Sales in the Midwest and South regions (the latter where DC is located) actually rose slightly, but the increases were offset by sales dropping in the West and Northeast regions.

NAR economist Lawrence Yun also stated that there was “an unusual spike in contract cancellations in the past month,” noting that the reasons for the cancelled contracts were unclear, but that tight credit and low appraisals were partly to blame.

This news is in stark contrast to what has been happening locally. Last month, 5,124 home purchase contracts were signed in the DC area, the highest total for the month of June since 2005, according to data released today by RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI), the research arm of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS). When the report came out, RBI analyst Jonathan Miller told UrbanTurf that, while optimistic, the contract numbers were representative of historical home sales patterns for the spring and a return to a more stable market for the region.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/nar_existing_home_sales_fall_unexpectedly/3832.