US July new home sales disappoint with 2.4 pct rise

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US new home sales rose 2.4 percent in July from June to a pace that fell short of market expectations, in a further sign of housing market distress, government data showed Tuesday.

The Commerce Department reported that sales of new one-family homes stood at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 515,000 units, while the consensus analyst forecast was 525,000.

On a 12-month basis, the pace of new home sales was 35.3 percent below the July 2007 level.

The department sharply revised lower its June rate to 503,000, from an initial estimate of 530,000.

The June sales pace was the slowest since September 1991, during the last real estate downturn.

The report was the latest in a string of disappointing data on the housing market, mired in its worst slump in decades.

Earlier Tuesday, a survey showed home prices plunged a record 15.9 percent in the in June from a year ago in the 20 largest US metropolitan areas.

The Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller survey showed the 18th consecutive month of falling home prices in the major markets, which also saw the steepest rise during the real estate boom.

In the 10 largest cities, prices were a record 17.0 percent lower than in June 2007, the survey showed.

"The fundamental pressure on prices is still downward" said Ian Shepherdson, economist at High Frequency Economics.

"We expect no bottom till end-2009."

On Monday, the National Association of Realtors reported sales of existing homes and apartments increased 3.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.00 million units.

Although the July headline number was better than analysts' forecast of 4.90 million units, sales were 13.2 percent lower than a year ago.

However, analysts pointed out that the modest monthly gain in sales benefited from fire-sale prices from foreclosures, and a glut of unsold homes means that recovery in the housing market, at the epicenter of US economic woes, remains out of sight.

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