**MNI 5 THINGS: June Home Resales Decline, But Supply Up Y/Y

--5 Things We Learned From The Existing Home Sales Data

By Kevin Kastner, Sara Haire, Shikha Dave, and Harrison Clarke

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following are the key points from the June existing

home sales data released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors:

     - June existing home sales -0.6% to 5.38m SAAR vs 5.42m expected, while May

was revised down to 5.41M, but inventories were up from a year ago for the first

time since June 2015. The June sales decline was the third in a row and puts the

Q2 average well below the previous quarter and year-to-date sales through the

first half of the year down 2.2% from a year ago.

     - June resales were up 5.9% in the Northeast and 0.8% in the Midwest, but

these were more than offset by a 2.2% drop in the large South region and down

2.6% in the West region.

     - June home supply +4.3% to 1.95m, but +0.5% year/year, the first year/year

increase since June 2015. The months supply rose to 4.3 months from 4.1 months

in May and 4.2 months a year ago.

     - NAR's Chief Economist Lawrence Yun noted that the year/year increase in

inventories could suggest that inventories have bottomed out and could start to

rebound, but it will take more than one month to make a trend.

     - National median sales price +5.2% y/y to record high $276,900 in June.

--MNI Washington Bureau; tel: +1 202-371-2121; email: kevin.kastner@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: MAUDR$,MAUDS$,M$U$$$]