Existing U.S. home sales have dropped 5.9 percent in July, the sixth consecutive month of decline, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which admitted a “housing recession.”
At a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.81 million, home sales are down 25.9 percent since January and 20.2 percent from a year ago.
“The ongoing sales decline reflects the impact of the mortgage rate peak of 6 percent in early June,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.
The average mortgage rate has gone down slightly since its peak two months ago.
The NAR said that the inventory of unsold existing homes rose to 1.31 million at end of last month, or the equivalent of 3.3 months at the current monthly sales pace….