Existing Home Sales measures the number and change of residential and existing houses sold during the previous month. It is a monthly released index by the National Association of Realtors. The housing sector is a very important sector for the US economy as its average contribution to GDP is about 15%-18%. It is an important indicator because it measures both investments in the form of houses sold but also because of the investment in the housing services, which can contribute a lot in the total economic growth. Higher than expected readings in Existing Home Sales are considered positive for the US Dollar and the US economy. The Existing Home Sales are sensitive to the interest rate changes, as the cost of financing to buy existing houses has increased with two interest rate hikes by the Fed in 2017.
The United States Existing Home Sales
The United States Existing Home Sales latest reading of 5.62 million was in June 2017 for the month of May 2017, and was higher than the forecast reading of 5.55 million and also higher than the previous reading of 5.56 million. Historically the United States Existing Home Sales had an all-time high reading of 7.25 million in September of 2005. The all-time low reading was 1.37 million in March of 1970. The long-term average reading for the period of years 1968-2017 is 3.90201 million. For the 1st semester of 2017 the trend for the United States Existing Home Sales is not stable and the highest reading was 5.7 million if March of 2017.
