INSTANT VIEW: Existing home sales up for third straight month

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned homes in the United States increased at a faster-than-expected annual pace in June, an industry survey showed on Thursday, in the third straight month of gains.

KEY POINTS: * The National Association of Realtors said that sales rose 3.6 percent to an annual rate of 4.89 million units from a downwardly revised 4.72 million pace in May. * June's reading compared with forecasts for a 4.84 million unit annual pace. Sales were 0.2 percent lower than the 4.90 million-unit level from June 2008.

COMMENTS:

STEVE GOLDMAN, MARKET STRATEGIST, WEEDEN & CO.:

"It's the third month in a row we are seeing an improvement in the housing market. It helps a market looking for data to be as expected or slightly better than expected."

PETER JANKOVSKIS, CO-CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, OAKBROOK INVESTMENTS LLC IN LISLE, ILLINOIS:

"It's nice that the upward trend is continuing. That's a positive certainly. The overall amount I would characterize as in-line with expectations; once you take into account that they revised downward the prior month, I can see some positive reaction out of it. It's one of those mixed message things, it's nice that the upward trend is continuing, but at the same time, when you account for that revisions it's basically in-line with expectations."

CRAIG PECKHAM, EQUITY TRADING STRATEGIST, JEFFERIES & COMPANY, NEW YORK:

"Bottom-line, what you have is a better-than-expected number, which speaks to a broad trend of slow and gradual trending up in the housing market, which is important from the consumer perspective.

"If you think about the root causes of the meltdown last year, housing was at the core, and we're still way off expansion levels. This will probably be another example of the markets moving sideways or slightly higher.

"This number will help consumer confidence, but you need to be mindful that we have more data that has to be evaluated. Case-Schiller data will be very important, and I prefer that metric because it captures the more expensive homes. There's been evidence that shows the lower end of the market has been washed out, but there could be more pain in the higher end."

DOUG SMITH, CHIEF ECONOMIST FOR THE AMERICAS, STANDARD CHARTERED, NEW YORK:

"The prior numbers were revised down so it's kind of a wash. The housing market is very depressed and it's still very hard to get a mortgage. Unemployment is still rising. We should see the housing market depressed through 2010. It will be less of a drag on GDP and it won't help either."

GARY THAYER, SENIOR ECONOMIST, WELLS FARGO ADVISORS, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI:

"It's a good number. It's encouraging to see sales starting to move upward. You still have a lot of homes for sale, but if sales continue to quicken we could eat through much of that inventory by later this year and early next year. We're still in a very weak pricing environment which is attracting buyers, but we are beginning to see some stabilizing in prices."

DOUG ROBERTS, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, CHANNEL CAPITAL RESEARCH, SHREWSBURY, NEW JERSEY:

"The primary thing is the seasonal aspect. This is prime season right now, and prices have gone down and if people are going to move they're going to do it now. In essence, people want to do the moves before school begins, so there was pent-up demand and there's a certain amount of a seasonal bias on it.

"It was a pop-up, but I wouldn't read anything into it. It just might mean that housing right now has a blip, but we have to look at the trend over the next couple of months. And just because it's recovered, it's still at lower prices. So ultimately the real question is, there are a lot people under water out there who are saying 'I'm holding off of the market because the housing market will come back' and you're now starting to see sales being made."

MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. stock indexes ticked upward slightly. BONDS: U.S. Treasury debt prices held losses. DOLLAR: U.S. dollar gained against the euro.