The sales of Existing Houses in the US dropped by 1.8% for June to an annual base of 5.52 million houses, from 5.62 million the previous month. This was way below expectations which were at 5.58 million houses, and the 2nd lowest reading for 2017, although there is still an 0.8% increase in sales. Potential market dynamics didn’t change for this month, with the persistence strong demand offset by price growth rate that undermines the ability to afford costs and close deals. The core supply of houses is also still weak, despite inventories rose a bit to 4.3 month in June from 4.2, it is still below 4.6 registered in June 2016.
Sales rose slightly in the Midwest region during the month, while there has been a drop in the three other regions. The overall inventory for available houses drop by 7.1% on annual bases, and by 7.1% on annual basis for 25 consecutive months.
The average house price is $263.500 for the month, with a 6.5% increase over June 2016.
Sales in general is still pointing towards a strong trend in the market, especially that the prices is limited by supply issues. There shouldn’t be a great effect on the monetary policy expectations, as the Fed Reserve board is still considering that the data is justifying the policy normalization, especially with the pullback in financial conditions.
Dollar sentiment remained week with the USD/JPY unable to recapture the 111.00 level, while the treasury bonds didn’t change much on the data.