US existing home sales rise more than expected, Q3 GDP tracking unchanged

Existing home sales increased more than expected in July, supported by a solid rebound in single-family units. Existing sales were up 2.0% m/m, to an annualized level of 5.590mn units. The outturn was stronger than (5.48mn) and consensus (5.43mn) forecasts. Single-family sales increased 2.7% as condos/co-ops sales declined modestly. Supply fell slightly, to 4.8 months (previous: 5.0), with the supply of single-family units dropping below that of condo/co-op units.

The number of days on market deteriorated slightly, rising to 42 in July from 34 in June. Distressed sales as a share of total purchases fell modestly, to 7%, continuing the long-standing trend improvement in the series. The share of all-cash buyers was about unchanged at 23%. The share of first-time buyers fell a bit, to 28% in July from 30% in June.

"Stronger-than-expected existing home sales in July resulted in very little change to our estimate for the total dollar value of all homes sales in Q3, implying almost no change in broker's commissions and leaving our Q3 GDP tracking estimate unchanged at 2.7%",says Barclays.