If the housing market was a person, it might want to borrow Mark Twain’s famous quote: the reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.
Saturday, August 21st 2004, 5:14AM
by The Landlord
The latest figures show the national median house price reached yet another record in July while the number of days it took to sell a house shrank.
The one statistic in the latest Real Estate Institute figures in keeping with the notion that the housing market is cooling was the number of houses sold. They shrank from 8,367 in June to 7,802 in July, a 23% drop from the 10,138 sold in July last year and only a handful more than the 7,795were sold in July last year.
The national median house price jumped from $243,000 in June to $249,000 in July. That exceeded the previous record of $248,000 set in May. The July price is 17.9% higher than the $211,250 recorded in July last year.
That suggests a re-acceleration of house price inflation since June’s price was 15.7% higher than in June last year.
