RMLS just released the latest Market Action report chronicling real estate activity for July 2010 and the results are, well, interesting.   Basically, the entire report can be summed up with one sentence: Sales activity is way down, but sales prices have begun inching upwards!

Here’s the skinny:

Sales Activity
July 2010 vs June 2010 – Closed sales down 30%
July 2010 vs July 2009 – Closed sales down 29%

I expected sales activity to drop after the first time buyer tax credit expired, but that’s not a decrease, that’s falling off the mountain.  I’m going to be very interested to see the August numbers when they come out.  Was July a one month anomaly or have home sales really dried up?

Home Prices
July 2010 vs June 2010 – Prices increased 2.5%
July 2010 vs July 2009 – Prices up 2.9%
12  Month Rolling Average – Prices down 6.4%

Very interesting.  Even as the number of homes sold fell way off, prices started creeping upwards.  That’s a great sign!  Again, the August numbers will shed some light on the situation.  What’s really going on here?  I’m sure part of the increase can be attributed to the ultra low interest rates available.  Buyers can afford to pay a little more with interest rates so low.  The 12 Month Rolling average measures, in this case, the average sales price for  8/1/09 through 7/31/10 as compared to 8/1/08 through 7/31/09

Inventory
Inventory is back up to 10.8 months after being in the 7s for the past four months.  New listings increased slightly, but most of the inventory increase is due to the low rate of sale.  Remember, the 10.8 represents how many months the current inventory would last at the current rate of sale.

Market Time
Market Time measures how quickly a listed property receives an accepted offer.  Even though actual sales are down, the time on market has gone down…meaning the homes that are selling are selling more quickly.  Interesting.