House prices in the US continue to experience a rise despite the fact that the number of sales saw a decline.
According to worldpropertychannel.com, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) revealed that in September the average US house price was $199,200; a rise of 11.7 per cent compared to the same time last year. This rise marks the tenth consecutive month that house prices have increased by double digits in relation to 2012's figures.
The number of existing home sales reached 5.29 million last month, which is 10.7 per cent higher than the amount sold a year earlier. However, compared to the previous month existing home sales experienced a fall of 1.9 per cent.
In addition, cash purchases experienced a slight rise from 32 per cent in August to 33 per cent in September and 19 per cent of sales were made up of individual investors.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the decline doesn't come as a surprise and it may continue over the next few months.
"Affordability has fallen to a five year low as home price increases easily outpaced income growth," he explained. "Expected rising mortgage interest rates will further lower affordability in upcoming months. Next month we may see some delays associated with the government shutdown," reports propertywire.com.
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Laura Varley