US existing home sales unexpectedly fall in July

``The National Association of Realtors said on Thursday existing home sales fell 1.3 percent. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales rising 0.9 percent... "Demand remains strong but inventory shortage is the choke point," NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said.'' -- Of course, when asking prices are just too high, and buyers and sellers are each on strike, it looks exactly the same as "inventory shortage". (You can always say "if there were more homes, there'd be more sales", since more homes would naturally lower the asking prices... but so would simply lowering the asking prices...)