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(Kitco News) – The gold market continues to struggle to find its feet as prices continue to fall to stronger than expected data from home sales 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 annual rate of 5.86 million units, compared to the annual rate of 4.72 million homes in June. Economists expect to see a sales percentage of 5.4 million homes.
The stronger data than expected data weighs on gold, even if prices of their session remain low. December gold futures traded last at 1,932.2 an ounce, 0.72% down on the day.
“The housing market is well past the recovery phase and is now coming up with higher selling points compared to the days before pandemics,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in the report. “With the large shift in telework, current homeowners are looking for larger homes and this will lead to a secondary level of demand, even in 2021.”
The report said the median price for all existing house types last month was $ 304,000, up 8.5% from July 2019. The NAR said prices have increased in all regions of the country.
“For the first time ever, national median prices have broken the $ 300,000 level,” the report said.
As prices move higher, the inventory of homes for sale drops. The report said the total inventory for homes at the end of July was 1.50 million units, down from both 2.6% in June and representing a delivery of 3.1 months.
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