Gold price hits new daily lows as U.S. existing home sales beat expectations in September

New York (Oct 22)  Gold reached new daily lows after the U.S. existing home sales surprised on the upside in September.

Existing home sales rose 9.4% last month to a seasonally adjusted and annualized rate of 6.54 million units, compared to August’s annualized rate of 5.98 million homes, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Thursday.

The advance comes following a downwardly revised increase of 2% in August. Economists were expecting to see an increase of 5% to 6.30 million units in September.

Gold prices edged down to hit new daily lows immediately after the release. December Comex gold futures were last trading at $1,903.60, down 1.34% on the day.

This level of activity is unusual for September, the NAR said.

"Home sales traditionally taper off toward the end of the year, but in September they surged beyond what we normally see during this season," said NAR's chief economist Lawrence Yun. "I would attribute this jump to record-low interest rates and an abundance of buyers in the marketplace, including buyers of vacation homes given the greater flexibility to work from home."

The median price for all home types was $311,800, up 14.8% from last year, marking the 103rd straight month of annual gains.

The total inventory was at 1.47 million units, up 1.3% from August and down 19.2% from last year’s total.

"There is no shortage of hopeful, potential buyers, but inventory is historically low," Yun said. "To their credit, we have seen some homebuilders move to ramp up supply, but a need for even more production still exists."

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