Housing Sales Help to Keep Stocks Up
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Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Some signs of life for the housing market helped keep the markets in positive territory Wednesday.
The Dow closed up 13 points, climbing above the 13,600 level for part of the session. The index finally settled on 13,577.96 by the close of the session. The Nasdaq added five points and closed at 3,182.62. The S&P gained just two points, closing at 1,461.05.
Sales of existing homes rose nearly eight percent in August, the biggest increase since May of 2010. The National Association of Realtors says that number might have been even higher had more prospective buyers been able to qualify for mortgages.
New home construction jumped, too. But economists say the number is still far below what we’d see in a healthy economy.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio