By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 1 hour ago, Updated 1 hour ago
This represents an increase of 4.4% compared to June. ungvar/stock.adobe.com
New home sales in the United States rose more than expected in July, despite ever higher interest rates, even reaching their highest level in the last twelve months, according to data released Wednesday by the Commerce Department. . In July, 714,000 new homes were sold, at an annualized rate, in other words projected over a year at this rate, more than the 701,000 expected by analysts, according to the consensus published by briefing.com.
This represents an increase of 4.4% compared to June, whose sales were also revised downwards, to 684,000 instead of 697,000. Over one year, the increase is 31.5%, compared to July 2022. At the end of July, 437,000 houses were available for sale, which represents a stock of 7.3 months at the current rate, an almost stable availability by compared to the previous month (7.4 months) which could help lower prices.
Read alsoInflation resistance causes US interest rates to soar
A market still under pressure
Not for July, however, since the median price has started to rise again, to 436,700 dollars, against 415,400 a month earlier, but still remains far from the high reached in October 2022, at 496,800 dollars. On Tuesday, resales of homes for the month of July had been announced down, according to the National Federation of Realtors (NAR) but prices had continued to rise.
The housing market in the United States remains very tight due to the current low availability of housing, which continues to keep prices high, despite record interest rates on mortgages. The latter indeed reach 7.09% for a 30-year fixed loan, the most common in the country, according to data from the real estate refinancing group Freddie Mac, their highest level since March 2002.
And the rise could increase further, between the effect of the rise in Federal Reserve (Fed) rates, now in a range between 5.25% and 5.50%, but also because of the recent rise in bond rates , the highest for 16 years.
2023-08-23 15:10:43
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