“inventories are at their highest level in over a year, and price gains have slowed to much more welcoming levels in many parts of the country,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “This bodes well for rising home sales in the upcoming months as consumers are provided with more choices.”

But supply shortages in certain areas, particularly the West, means that construction of new homes needs to increase before housing makes a full recovery, he said.

Plus, while the economy is adding jobs at a healthy clip, wage growth is stagnant. This “is leaving a large pool of potential homebuyers on the sidelines who otherwise would be taking advantage of low interest rates,” Yun said.

“Mortgage rates were little changed amid a week of light economic reports.  Of the few releases, industrial production rose by 0.2% in June, below the market consensus forecast. Also, the producer price index for final demand rose 0.4% in June, rebounding from a 0.2% decline the prior month,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist with Freddie Mac.

“Like many Americans, mortgage rates seem to be taking a midsummer vacation. Economic news has been mixed, and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's recent Senate testimony indicated that the central bank will not announce a rate hike anytime soon. That's good news for borrowers who have not refinanced yet or need more time to find a house. But don't expect mortgage rates to rest forever,” Bankrate said.

Chinese buying was up more than 70% to $22 billion -- nearly 1 in 4 dollars of all foreign purchases, according to the National Association of Realtors.

In addition to the tide of Chinese buyers and the Canadians, those from Mexico, India and the United Kingdom filled out the top five list. India also had a notable jump in money spent -- 48% growth.

"The housing market is likely to continue recovering lost ground following its weather-induced stumble earlier this year," said Gennadiy Goldberg, an economist at TD Securities in New York. "We look for the stronger pending home sales report to help put fears of 'flattening' housing market momentum to rest in the near-term."

“The higher median home prices in many counties with a high risk for natural disaster indicates that other location-based factors such as weather and access to jobs override concerns about home damage as a result of earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, in a statement.

Only 34 counties contained more than 500,000 homes. Of those counties, none fell into the very high risk category, 13 were considered high risk, 13 were medium risk, seven were low risk, and one was very low risk.

The high-risk counties include Kings, New York, Queens, Bronx and Suffolk counties in the New York City area; San Diego and Riverside counties in Southern California; Wayne County in the Detroit metro area; Philadelphia County; and Middlesex County in the Boston metro.

Among those 34 most housing-rich counties, the average median sales price was $268,470 in April, 56 percent higher than the national median of $172,000, RealtyTrac said. The median price in the high-risk counties averaged $377,483 compared with $161,000 in the low-risk or very low-risk counties.

“The potential risk of a natural disaster may not be the first item on most homebuyer checklists for a dream home, but prudent buyers will certainly take this into consideration along with myriad other factors that could affect home value,” Blomquist said.