Existing home sales - on the rise?

Existing home sales - on the rise?
July US existing home sales came in at 5.24 million, up 5.0% month on month and up 7.2% year on year, and higher than the 5m forecast (lower 4.8 m, higher 5.25m). So overall a reasonably positive result, and the chart below shows a distinctive upward monthly trend developing. On the price side the July median price was 178.4k, down -15.1% year on year - so on that basis you would expect a little pick up in volume of sales (think back to elementary economics - supply and demand, price goes down demand goes up - sales go up). In terms of the impact on the wider economy it's pretty good news, it's another sign that the US housing market is on the road to recovery (and remember the housing market crash was basically the catalyst that sparked the entire financial and subsequent real economy crisis). The chart below also shows the closing value of the S&P 500 of each month (plus high/low values). You can see a reasonably similar path for the two - so there may just bee some legs to the recent stock market performance...