News Bites
U.S. existing home sales disappoint in November, falling for the first time in five months
(Kitco News) Gold price remained largely unchanged as U.S. existing home sales came in below expectations in November, falling for the first time in five months.
Existing home sales dropped 2.5% last month to a seasonally adjusted and annualized rate of 6.69 million units, compared to October’s annualized rate of 6.86 million homes, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Tuesday.
The advance comes following an increase of 4.4% in October. Economists were expecting to see a decrease of 1% to 6.7 million units in November.
Gold prices did not see a significant move either way, with February Comex gold futures last trading at $1,879.0, down 0.20% on the day.
Despite the monthly drop, the annual pace of housing purchases is beating last year’s totals, said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.
"Home sales in November took a marginal step back, but sales for all of 2020 are already on pace to surpass last year's levels," said Yun. "Given the COVID-19 pandemic, it's amazing that the housing sector is outperforming expectations."
The median price for all home types was $310,800, up 14.6% from last year, marking the 105th straight month of annual gains.
The total inventory was at 1.28 million units, down 9.9% from October and down 22% from last year’s total. This marks the lowest level of inventory since the tracking began in 1982.