Existing-home sales in the U.S. reached their highest pace of the year last month, increasing 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 5.15 million sales in July.
That being said, on a year-over-year basis, the pace of existing-home sales dropped from 2.6 percent lower in June to 4.3 percent lower in July while the inventory of unsold homes remains around 6 percent higher.
Worth noting: foreclosures and short sales accounted for 9 percent of the sales volume last month versus 15 percent at the same time last year, the first time in over six years that the share of distressed sales was in the single-digits and versus an average of 36 percent of sales in 2009.