(Kitco News) - Spot gold is falling further into the red this morning after the latest data showed the U.S. housing market performing below expectations last month.
Total existing-home sales, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops, fell 5.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.75 million in October, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced on Thursday.
The data was worse than expected, as the forecast of economists called for a drop to 3.85 million. September’s total was revised down to 3.97 million from 3.99 million units.
Spot gold continued to set fresh session lows in the minutes following the 10 am ET release, and last traded at $3.864.78 for a loss of 3.08% on the day.
Month-over-month sales declined in the Midwest, South and West and held steady in the Northeast, the report said. Year-over-year sales declined in all four regions.
“Home buying is difficult when mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels since 2000, aside from a single month in 2023,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “As a result, home sales fell to their lowest level since August 2010.”
“Despite fewer transactions in October, the 88 million homeowners across the country are largely in a comfortable financial position due to sizable housing wealth accumulation,” Yun added. “The number of distressed property sales remains historically low at only 2% of all transactions. Based on the current underwhelming home sales pace at a time of consistent job growth, there could be sizable pent-up demand if mortgage rates decline.”
