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Gold price stumbles following 24.7% rise in U.S. existing home sales
(Kitco News) - The gold market continues to struggle to find its legs as prices remain down following stronger than expected home sales data in July, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Friday, the NAR said Existing home sales increased 24.7% last month to a seasonally adjusted and annualized rate of 5.86 million units, compared to June’s annualized rate of 4.72 million homes. Economists were expecting to see a sales rate of 5.4 million homes.
The stronger-than-expected data is weighing on gold even as prices remain off its session lows. December gold futures last traded at 1,932.2 an ounce, down 0.72% on the day.
“The housing market is well past the recovery phase and is now booming with higher home sales compared to the pre-pandemic days,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist in the report. “With the sizable shift in remote work, current homeowners are looking for larger homes and this will lead to a secondary level of demand even into 2021.”
The report said that the median price for all existing home types was $304,000 last month, up 8.5% from July 2019. The NAR said that prices rose in every region of the country.
“For the first time ever, national median home prices breached the $300,000 level,” the report said.
As prices move higher, the inventory of homes for sale as dropped. The report said that total housing inventory at the end of July was 1.50 million units, down from both 2.6% in June and representing a 3.1 month supply.
