BEIJING--New-home prices in China in July fell by the most in over six years as home buyers lost confidence in the property market after a year-long slide in sales, stalled projects and mounting debt defaults by real-estate developers.
Average new-home prices in 70 major cities in July fell 1.67%, compared with the same period a year earlier, after falling 1.29% in June, according to Wall Street Journal calculations based on data released Monday by China's National Bureau of Statistics.
Meanwhile, one more Chinese city reported growth from a year ago. New-home prices rose in 22 of 70 cities last month, compared with 21 cities in June.
Compared with the previous month, average new-home prices fell for the eleventh consecutive month. Prices dropped 0.11% in July, after June's 0.10% decline, the statistics bureau said.
House prices in second- and third-tier cities showed a downward trend in July compared with a month before, said Sheng Guoqing, an analyst at the statistics bureau.
Fewer cities reported growth from the month before. Thirty of the 70 cities recorded a month-over-month increase in home prices in July, down from 31 cities in June.
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