Home sales in the United States surged at a record pace for a second straight month in July as historically low interest rates boosted demand for homes even as the pandemic put millions of people out of work.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said in a report Friday that existing home sales rose 24.7 percent to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.86 million units in July, following an earlier record monthly increase in June of 20.7 percent. Economists polled by Reuters forecast sales rising 14.7 percent, so the NAR numbers are a surprise to the upside.
