Why local housing sales dipped but prices rose

I just came across an interesting article on CNBC.com that likely explains a seemingly incongruent fact from the Fredericksburg-area July housing data — in which median prices rose about 5 percent from the year before but sales fell 16 percent. The $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers expired at the end of June, so none of the July buyers got the credit. As CNBC explains, that means July buyers were less likely to be first-timers, and hence were more likely to pay a bit higher prices. That may explain how sales could fall but median prices could rise for the homes that did sell.

Permalink: http://news.fredericksburg.com/businessbrowser/2010/08/24/why-local-housing-sales-dipped-but-prices-rose/