Slight Increase Predicted for July Home Sales

Ahead of anticipated July home sales reports due out in the second to last week of August, Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas predicts higher home sales than in June, but "only barely."

Since late 2017, new home sales have shown signs of flattening out with growth expected to flatline by the end of 2018, similar to existing home sales, says Terrazas, adding that for now, Zillow anticipates 3.6 percent growth for new-home sales from June to July of this year. New-home sales will be up 17.6 percent annually if July's data hits that target.

Existing home sales have been stagnant over the past year and a half. Since April, sales have posted a string of small monthly declines. We expect that streak to break in July, but only ever-so-slightly. Our July forecast suggests that existing home sales rose 0.5 percent in July from June to 5.41 million units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate – unchanged when the number is rounded and down 0.2 percent from July 2017.

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