**MNI 5 THINGS:US July Home Resales Fall Fourth Straight Month

--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 July existing

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

     - July existing home sales -0.7% to 5.34M SAAR vs 5.40M expected, a fourth

straight decline that puts sales 1.5% below their year-ago level. June were

unrevised at a 5.38M SAAR.

     - July home supply -0.5% to 1.920m, but were flat year/year, the first time

in three years that supply did not decline on a year/year basis. The months

supply held steady at 4.3 months, the same as year earlier.

     - NAR's Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said that the housing market continued

to lag behind its potential due to low inventories, but noted that now that it

appears that inventories have stabilized and price acceleration has slowed, a

home sales rebound in possible.

     - National median sales price +4.5% y/y to $269,600 in July, still well

outpacing wage growth, but the rate of year/year gains has softened a bit, a

positive factor for sales going foorward.

     - July resales fell in Northeast (-8.3%), Midwest (-1.6%), and South

(-0.4%), but rose in the West (+4.4%).

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

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