According to BloombergView, buyer traffic is in negative territory, purchase activity is at a six-month low, and sales volume underperformed in July.
New home sales dipped to an annualized rate of 571,000 units in July, well off the long-term average pace of 727,000. Existing home sales sat at an annualized pace of 5.44 million, which is 110,000 units below forecast.
BloombergView reports that prices are to blame. The median sales price of a newly built home is $313,700, the highest July price ever. High prices are turning away first-time buyers, who made up only a third of the market in July, down from the normal rate of 40 percent.
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