Early Look at Local Housing Markets in July

The NAR is now reporting earlier in the month than in previous years. Existing home sales for July are scheduled to be released next week on Tuesday, July 11th. The consensus is for 4.07 million SAAR, down from 4.09 million in June.

July sales were mostly for contracts signed in May and June, and mortgage rates averaged 6.44% in May and 6.49% in June (Higher than for closed sales in June).

In July, sales in these early reporting markets were down 1.0% YoY. Last month, in June, these same markets were up 7.0% year-over-year Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA).

Important: There were the same number of working days in July 2026 (22) as in July 2025 (22). So, the year-over-year change in the headline SA data will be similar to the change in NSA data (there are other seasonal factors).

Notes for all tables:

1. New additions to table in BOLD.

2. Northwest (Seattle)

3. Comparison to 2019 ONLY includes local markets with available 2019 data!

For the previous month, there was one more working days in June 2026 (21) as in June 2025 (20) So, the YoY change in the headline SA data was less the change in the NAR report than the NSA data.

Sales in all of these markets are down sharply compared to July 2019.

This graph shows existing home sales by month for 2025 and 2026, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis. Last year, the NAR reported sales in July 2025 were at 4.03 million SAAR.

This early data suggests that July existing sales (as reported seasonally adjusted by the NAR) will likely be mostly unchanged year-over-year - and perhaps slightly below the consensus forecast of 4.07 million SAAR (although this is based on very limited data released so far).

For these areas, new listings were up 3.3% year-over-year.

Last month, new listings in these markets were up 0.7% year-over-year.

New listings in these markets are mostly down compared to July 2019.

Inventory was up 5.4% year-over-year. Last month inventory in these markets was up 3.4% YoY.

Comparing to July 2019, inventory is up in most of these markets (down in San Diego).

This was just a few early reporting markets.