(Kitco News) - Rising mortgage rates continue to take their toll on the U.S. housing market; however, the drop in new homes sales in September was less than expected.
The gold market is not seeing much reaction to better-than-expected new home sales data as prices see some technical buying momentum as $1,650 continues to hold as solid support. December gold futures last traded at $1,669.70 an ounce, up 0.71% on the day.
New home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 603,000 homes in September down nearly 11% from August’s revised data of 677,000, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday.
The drop in new home sales was slightly less than expected as consensus forecasts were looking for the pace of sales to drop below 600,000 units.
The report said that home sales are down 17.6% compared to September 2021.
Looking at home prices, the report said that the median sales price of new houses sold in September 2022 was $470,600. The average sales price was $517,700.
The supply of homes are sale are starting to rise as demand cools. The report said that the inventory of homes for sale last month totaled 462,000, representing a 9.2-month supply.
