(Kitco News) - The gold market continues to see solid technical selling pressure, with prices struggling to hold support at $2,400 an ounce. The market has been unable to attract any new buying momentum even as U.S. consumers largely stay away from the housing market.
Home sales fell 1.9% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.14 million units, down from March’s rate of 4.22 million, the National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday. The data missed expectations as economists forecasted remain roughly unchanged.
Existing home sales are down 1.9% compared to April 2023.
The disappointing housing market data is not having much impact on gold. June gold futures last traded at $2,399.80 an ounce, down 1% on the day.
Despite the drop in home sales, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said that there are signs the market is stabilizing.
"Home sales changed little overall, but the upper-end market is experiencing a sizable gain due to more supply coming onto the market," Yun said in the report.
According to some market analysts, rising home prices are one factor keeping potential home buyers out of the marketplace.
The report said the median existing-home sales price grew 5.7% from April 2023 to $407,600 – the tenth consecutive month of year-over-year price gains and the highest price ever for the month of April.
Yun said that prices could be close to peaking.
"Home prices reaching a record high for the month of April is very good news for homeowners," Yun added. "However, the pace of price increases should taper off since more housing inventory is becoming available."
Looking at the supply of homes for sale, the report said that the total housing inventory\ registered at the end of April was 1.21 million units, up 9% from March and 16.3% from one year ago.
Unsold inventory sits at a 3.5-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 3.2 months in March and 3.0 months in April 2023, the report added.
