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US house prices dip in August

by : Ryan Jones

Date : Mon, 25 Sep 2006 16:44:00 GMT





NEW YORK - Prices of pre-owned houses in the US fell for the first time in over a decade showing a decline of 1.7 percent below compared to the price at the end of August 2005, according to a survey. lt;br / gt; lt;br / gt; This is the first time in 11 years the prices have dropped since April 1995. The average price of an owned property in the country fell to $225,000, down from $229,000 during the same time last year. The survey, conducted by The National Association of Realtors, also found that the number of sales of the existing houses fell by over 0.5 percent during the same period. There were over 6.3 million properties sold in August, better that the 6.2 million predicted by market analysts. lt;br / gt; lt;br / gt; David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors thinks that the market is undergoing a cooling phase rather than collapsing altogether. He added that the price adjustment was expected that revealed that the trend will continue for some more time. "It keeps us on track to see the third-highest sales year on record, but we do expect an adjustment in home prices to last several months as we work through a build up in the inventory of homes on the market, " he said. lt;br / gt; lt;br / gt; Ian Shepherdson, chief United States economist with High Frequency Economics, concurred with Lereah, saying, “With inventory still rising, there is no chance of any short-term relief. Prices and volumes have a long way to fall yet”. Housing market in the US has slowed down considerably in the recent times. This latest report comes soon after another report, which revealed that the construction of new homes and apartments has seen a drop by 6% in August.



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