July home sales in the greater Miami area fell 10.5% from June as fewer high-end buyers acquired properties and the sale of new homes plummeted to record lows, DataQuick said Thursday. The survey, which includes the counties of Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward, recorded 8,820 closings on new and resale homes in Miami last month, down 1.1% from last year but a steep drop from June. The number of closings on newly built homes fell 12.7% from June and 29.2% from the year-ago period, with only 459 newly built homes reaching closing, making it the lowest new home sales total on record for July. DataQuick attributed the larger than usual June-to-July drop to anxieties caused by negative economic reports and political wrangling in Washington D.C. over the U.S. debt ceiling. In the high-end range – which includes homes valued at $500,000 or more – sales dropped 16.3% month-to-month in the Miami area. Furthermore, the sale of multimillion-dollar homes declined with 78 houses and condos selling for $2 million or more last month, down 24.3% from June and up 30% from July 2010. About 4,251 condos sold in the Miami area in July, down 13.4% from June and a 2.4% increase from July 2010. Still, condo sales made up 48.2% of the area’s total July sales, compared to 46.5% in June and 35% over the past decade. The median price paid on all new and resales houses and condos sold in Miami hit $136,000 in the most recent report, up 0.7% from June, but down 2.9% from a year earlier. Write to: Kerri Panchuk.

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