THE TAKEAWAY: [US Existing Home Sales dropped in March unexpectedly] > [Housing market signaled an uneven recovery] > [USDCAD Neutral]
The pace of U.S. home resales declined unexpectedly in March, indicating the US market is recovering unevenly. The National Association of Realtors in Washington reported today that existing home sales fell 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.92 million in March from a downwardly revised 4.95 million the previous month. The latest reading fell short of the median forecast of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, which called for 5.00 million. Also, the median home price rose 11.8 percent from a year earlier to $184,300, the most since November 2005.
For a while now, Americans have benefited from historically low mortgage rates and rising property value. Improvement in hiring also helped to stimulus the US housing market, pointed to growing momentum in the economy. At the same time, limited supply of properties available for sale may restrain the pace of progress in the industry. Overall, housing market will remain a positive for the economy, but is likely to grow at a slower pace in the next few months.
USDCAD 1-minute Chart: April 22, 2013
Chart created using Marketscope 2.0– Prepared by Renee Mu
The U.S. dollar showed a fairly muted reaction to the release, with USDCAD little changed. At the time of this report was written, the USDCAD was trading at $1.0282.
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--- Written by Renee Mu DailyFX Research
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