Existing home sales for July rose 2.3% to 4.47 million, up from 4.37 million in June. Year-over-year existing home sales are up 10.4%. The median home price also rose year-over-year, increasing 9.4% to $187,300 from July 2011.
Existing Home Sales is a measure of the selling rate of pre-owned single-family homes, collected by the National Association of Realtors from 650 realtor associations. It includes a geographical breakdown, as well as a measure of prices and house inventory, the number of months it would take to deplete the existing supply of pre-owned houses at the current sales pace. The data is timely and is used in conjunction with the new home sales release from the Census Bureau. Sales of existing (or pre-owned) houses account for roughly 84% of all houses sold.