The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research published the housing market indicators monthly update for July that includes some interesting data points:
- Total home equity has risen consistently since Q1 2012 and is approaching $20 trillion (see chart above)
- Existing home sales rebounded after declining for three straight months. The National Association of Realtors® reported that June sales jumped 20.7 percent to 4.72 million units from 3.91 million in May but were still 11.3 percent lower than a year earlier.
- Year-over-year house price increases slowed a bit, with annual gains ranging from four to five percent. The Federal Housing Finance Agency seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index for May estimated that home values decreased 0.3 percent from the previous month but rose 4.9 percent from the previous year, down from a 5.5-percent annual gain in April. View the complete report.