California home sales fell by over 4% on a month-to-month seasonally adjusted basis for July, but when compared to July 2010, they were up 4.5%, the state's Realtor association reported.
There were 458,000 units sold on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared with 438,850 one year prior. Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors, said in spite of the year-over-year improvement, sales in July were still weaker than expected.
“Economic uncertainty and recent developments in financial markets have caused hesitation among buyers, the effects of which we may see in the coming months. We must see sustained job and income gains along with an increase in consumer confidence before we can expect to see consistent improvement in the housing market,” she said.
Meanwhile, CAR said the median price for a single-family detached home slipped slightly to $294,230 from June's $295,210, but was down nearly 8% from June 2010's $318,550.
CAR's unsold inventory index for July was 5.5 months, compared with 5.0 months in June. The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home in the state was 52.1 days in July, up from 42.4 days one year prior.
