June Existing Home Sales Rise, CNBC's Olick Discusses

The National Association of Realtors announced Thursday that existing home sales in June rose 1.1%, according to CNBC's Diana Olick.
By Lindsay Rittenhouse ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The National Association of Realtors reported June existing home sales gained by 1.1% to an annual seasonably adjusted rate of 5.57 million units, CNBC's Diana Olick reported on "Squawk on the Street" Thursday.

"That's slightly ahead of expectations, but May's numbers were revised down so it all comes out in the wash," Olick said.

Earlier this week, The Commerce Department revised May's housing starts down to 1.14 million units from 1.6 million.

"Still this is the strongest level since February of 2007," Olick noted.

The association added that "this could be the high point" for the rest of the year as "foot traffic" starts to slow, according to Olick.

Home sales are higher by 3% year-over-year but "the problem here is that sales could be stronger" if inventories showed more growth, Olick commented.

Inventories in June declined by 5.8% from the previous year to 2.12 million homes for sale.

"That is just a 4.6-month supply and this is the 13th straight month of year-over-year declines in inventory," Olick stated.

In addition, housing prices soared 4.8% year-over-year to $247,000, the average price of a home sold in June.

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