Zillow analyst names culprit of flat home sales, high housing prices

Home sales are increasing slightly and mortgage costs are dropping across the nation, a new Zillow report reveals. Yet both the price of sold homes and the cost of rent continue to rise, illustrating what many have dubbed a housing affordability crisis.

Zillow’s June Market Report shows that U.S. home sales grew by 5.9% since last year, with a total of 381,125 homes sold in June. The number is a 9.2% increase since May.

Orphe Divounguy, senior economist on Zillow’s Economic Research team, cautioned against making rosy assumptions based on a single monthly report. He instead highlighted longer-term trends, which show that home sales are still nearly flat compared to last year.

“I’m always wary of the one-month data points,” Divo...