U.S. home sales soar 9.6 percent in July by Magdalena Rosova

New homes sales rose 9.6 percent in July, which is another positive sign that the housing market is finally recovering from the historic bottom it reached at the beginning of this year. Increase of new home sales is much bigger than expected. Although sales rose 30 percent from the bottom in January, it is still far away from its peak four years ago. Average sales price are now $210,100 but a year ago it was $210,400 or 11.5 percent higher. In July the sales prices rose the most since September, which surprised all economists. Increase in sales is caused mainly by government decision to cover 10 percent of the home prices and give $8,000 to each first-time buyer as we! ll. But Homebuyers must hurry up if they want to take the advantage because federal tax credit applies only for home sales that will be completed by the end of November. However, builders and real estate agents are pressing Congress to extend government support. They are afraid that otherwise the sales growth will stagnate. Some builders already report sales dip. Many have troubles because the can not guarantee to buyers that the homes will be finished in time to qualify for the government support. They say that real estate market was really fragile thing and therefore they suppose it was not right time to take the credit away. Anyway, sales are not likely to fall back to the lows of last winter because the economy is healthier now. Therefore even if the government stops its support, the sales will stay the same, said Adam York, economist in Wells Fargo. People are not in panic and dread about their future, he added.

related story (sgx15240):! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/July-home-sales-surge-more-apf...

by Magdalena Rosova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.