US Existing Home Sales decline in October. Dollar falling Monday in Currency Trading. | CountingPips Forex Blog

November 24, 2008 - Forex Economic News

US Existing Home Sales decline in October. Dollar falling Monday in Currency Trading.

U.S. Existing Homes sales retreated in month of October after increasing in September according to the monthly report produced by the National Association of Realtors. The NAR report showed that existing-home sales including single family homes, co-ops and townhouses decreased 3.1 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.98 million units.

The report cited financial market turmoil and economic uncertainty as hampering sales activity in October. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said that, "Many potential home USD falling in Currency Trading buyers appear to have withdrawn from the market due to the stock market collapse and deteriorating economic conditions" and that, "We have favorable affordability conditions, but we need more than that to give buyers with jobs the confidence they need. This is why a housing stimulus is so critical now to encourage more buyers to draw down the inventory and stabilize home prices. Without home price stabilization, there will not be an economic recovery."

September's existing home sales data showed a revised increase of 4.7 percent and had surpassed economic forecasts. October's existing home annual sales rate fell to 1.6 percent below October 2007's sales pace. Market forecasts were expecting the October sales rate to fall by approximately 3.5 percent to a 5.00 million unit pace.

The median sales price for existing homes in October registered $183,300. This is a decline of 11.3 percent from October 2007 which produced a median price of $206,700. Total housing inventory fell in October by 0.9 percent to a total of 4.23 million homes.

US Dollar falling in Currency Trading.

The U.S. dollar has been falling in currency trading today as risk appetite has carried over from Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has seen a rally to start the day as well as the Nasdaq and the S&P 500. The euro, pound, loonie, aussie, kiwi and the Swiss franc have all gained verses the dollar while the Japanese yen has declined so far today against the American currency. The EUR/USD pair has gained from today's opening rate of 1.2643 dollars per euro to trading at 1.2865 in the US morning trading session at 10:28 am ET. The GBP/USD has advanced from opening at 1.4918 to trading today at 1.5088. The US dollar is gaining against the yen as the USD/JPY trades at 96.23 from 95.41. The dollar is falling against the Canadian loonie as the USD/CAD pair trades below 1.2400 at 1.2360 from its opening at approximately 1.2678 while verses the Swiss franc the dollar has declined from 1.2194 to trading at 1.2001. Elsewhere, the Australian dollar has increased to trading at 0.6452 today against the US dollar from 0.6310 while the New Zealand kiwi dollar has reached 0.5437 dollars per kiwi after opening at 0.5338 today.

EUR/USD Chart - The Euro has started today gaining vs. the US dollar in forex trading (1 Hour Chart).

Today's Forex Chart

tags: existing home sales, real estate, currency trading

Blog Index