Catherine Reagor in today’s Republic:

Home prices dipped slightly in July, but sales inched up from June.

The median home price of a used Valley home fell to $264,900 last month, after climbing to a record $267,000 in June.

There were 5,545 resales in July, compared with 5,460 the month before, reports the Arizona Real Estate Center at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic. Still, last month was the weakest July for home sales since 1999 when 5,240 resales were recorded.

The numbers come from Dr. Jay Butler of ASU. I have no idea where he gets them, and he doesn’t make them available for independent review — contrary to the common practice of scholarship. From the MLS, I have 7,206 sales in June compared to 6,102 in July. The unreliability of Dr. Butler’s real estate tracking is why we do our own.

Reagor is unusually restrained. Normally, she jumps on negative real estate news with a grave-dancer’s delight. Maybe she’s saving it up for Sunday…

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