July’s real estate data gives us a lot to think about. While sales maintained the momentum we saw last month, we’re still of the opinion that this is a result of pent-up demand from March, April & May, when sales were constrained by the pandemic shutdown. While price data seems to be showing random variation instead of signaling a softening of prices, the year’s trend line has been pretty flat and we’re seeing more listing price drops in the market recently. And inventory is down from previous years, possibly a pandemic-related hesitation on the part of potential sellers. What can we make of all of this? The economy, and life in general, is certainly providing us with some unprecedented conditions, and we can be pretty sure that there will be significant impacts ahead. We can’t know yet whether what we’re seeing right now is the beginning of something or just the workings of random uncertainty, but we’re pretty sure we’ll have more clarity in the next couple of months.