- Sales of existing homes in July jumped at the fastest rate in 10 years, sending stock prices up around the globe on hopes that the U.S. housing market -- a driver of the world's largest economy -- is stabilizing after years of decline.
Sales of single-family homes increased 7.2% in July from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.24 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.
The monthly increase was the largest since 1999, when the NAR began collecting data for all types of homes -- its measure includes condominiums and cooperative apartments. It marked the fourth monthly rise in a row. Sales also were up 5% from July 2008, showing the first gain from the year-earlier level since November 2005
Housing Lifts Recovery Hopes By JAMES R. HAGERTY and NICK TIMIRAOS, WSJ. August 22, 2009
The below stats clarifies that above quoted WSJ article described only one side of the multilevel and multidimensional story:$0 - $100,000 Up 38.8% 100,000 - $250,000 Up 8.7% $250,000 - $500,000 Down 6.2% $500,000 - $750,000 Down 8.9% $750,000 - $1,000,000 Down 10.6% $1,000,000 - $2,000,000 Down 23.3% $2,000,000 + Down 32.4% 
See also, the statistics related to the US housing market basic trends and factors:
How many shares of the Dow Jones Industrial Average does it take to buy the Average U.S. House? House prices divided by Dow Industrial:
How many Ounces of Gold does it take to buy the Average U.S. House? Average U.S. real estate price divided by gold:
World Gold Production:
San Francisco "Bay area", or so called "Silicon Valley" housing statistics
Price-Rent Ratios, 2008:
International Comparison: Price-Rent Ratios:
Why is the Germany Housing Market so different to the rest of countries ...? At first glance the below statistics can provide at least a clue:
At the same time the France ( No Mortgage Equilty withdrawal and No Securitisation) looks like "US of the Eurozone — at least when it comes to housing".
