Seasonal adjustment is more "processed" than manipulated. They want to exclude any influence of people's preference for buying in July and try to report an "unbiased statistic". My guess is, that should lower the trend line below actual since July is a preferred month for home buying (being summer, school holiday etc.,). I think seasonal adjustment is a good thing but the large margin of error invalidates everything.

I remember a joke: A man with his head in an oven and feet in a freezer is on the average comfortable. That is how these housing statistics look like.