As home prices keep rising, it’s the lowest price brackets that are being hit the hardest.
CNBC reports that home sales in the range of $100,000 or below were down 14 percent compared with a year ago, while sales of million-dollar and higher homes climbed nearly 20 percent. This drop comes because low-price home inventory has reached record lows.
"On the lower end, there is virtually no property at a very low price level anymore," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. "The same property has been moved up to a different price bucket just because the prices have been rising strongly, over 40 percent price appreciation in the past five years. We are not getting the transactions on the lower end because there is virtually no inventory on the lower end."
According to the National Association of Realtors the median home price in July hit $258,300, the highest July price on record.
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