US June existing home sales highlights:Prior was 4.17mSales pace -2.4% vs +3.2% prior (revised to +3.7%)Inventory at 4.6 months vs 4.5 month priorMedian sale price +1.8% vs +1.3% y/y priorThe Fed is fighting an inflation battle but housing has been a material help in keeping prices low. That's a blessing but it could be a curse if/when home prices begin to accelerate again. New home construction is slow and the US has been deporting the immigrants that build homes, so at some point there will be more demand than supply. There's also a cohort of young Americans that's waiting to get into the housing market. They're still living at home and waiting/hoping for prices to drop but I don't think that day is coming, or at least not for awhile.For background. existing-home sales are the largest component of the U.S. housing market and are closely watched as a read-through on household confidence, affordability, mortgage demand and housing-related consumption. The series captures closings of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, making it broader and less revision-prone than new-home sales, which are based on contracts. Through May, the market showed a modest recovery from the rate-driven weakness that has weighed on turnover since 2022. Sales rose 3.2% from April and 3.2% from a year earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.17 million, the strongest pace since December. Single-family sales did most of the work, rising 3.5% month over month to a 3.8 million annualized pace, while condo and co-op sales were flat at 370,000.The improvement was helped by slightly better affordability, with NAR’s affordability index rising to 105.6 from 97.5 a year earlier, as income growth outpaced home-price growth in many regions. Still, affordability remains the main constraint. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.44% in May, up from April but below 6.82% a year earlier. Inventory improved, but only gradually: unsold supply rose 3.3% on the month to 1.55 million homes, equal to 4.5 months of supply. The national median existing-home price reached $429,300, up 1.3% year over year and a May record, underscoring that higher listings have not yet translated into broad price relief. First-time buyers rose to 35% of sales, while cash buyers held at 25%. This article was written by flc97fe4880a4b454993821fe0b770a597 at investinglive.com.