Investing.com - U.S. existing home sales rose to a 12-month high in September, easing concerns over the health of the housing market, industry data showed on Tuesday.
In a report, the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales increased 2.4% to a seasonally adjusted 5.17 million units last month from 5.05 million in August.
Analysts had expected existing home sales to rise 1% to 5.10 million units in September.
Sales are now at their highest pace of 2014, but still remain 1.7% below the 5.26 million-unit level from last September.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says the improved demand for buying seen since the spring has carried into the fall.
“Low interest rates and price gains holding steady led to September’s healthy increase, even with investor activity remaining on par with last month’s marked decline,” he said.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.2733 from around 1.2738 ahead of the release of the data, while GBP/USD was at 1.6147 from 1.6156 earlier.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock markets were higher after the open. The Dow 30 rose 0.4%, the S&P 500 advanced 0.9%, while the Nasdaq 100 rallied 1.2%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,250.80 a troy ounce, compared to $1,252.40 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $82.74 a barrel from $82.64 earlier.