The annual rate of existing home sales climbed to the highest level in nearly a decade as home shoppers sought relief from the summer’s tight inventory.
Home buyers closed on the purchase of 446,000 pre-owned homes during October, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops.
Existing home sales dropped from the previous month, when 486,000 units were sold, while a modest rise occurred from 444,000 sales a year previous.
Historical data from the National Association of Realtors, which released last month’s numbers on Tuesday, indicate that
there were 4,598,000 existing home sales during the first-10 months of this year.
Applying adjustments for seasonal factors, the annual rate of existing home sales was 5.600 million during the most-recent month — the highest rate since February 2007’s 5.79 million. The rate increased for the second consecutive month from 5.490 million in September and 5.290 million in October 2015.
“October’s strong sales gain was widespread throughout the country and can be attributed to the release of the unrealized pent-up demand that held back many would-be buyers over the summer because of tight supply,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun explained in the report.
In the South, the seasonally adjusted annual rate was 2.220 million in October 2016, improving from the previous month by nearly 3 percent — the biggest month-over-month gain of any region. A 2 percent increase in the Midwest put the rate at 1.360 million, while the Northeast was up over 1 percent to 0.750 million, and the West rose nearly 1 percent to 1.270 million.
Single-family home sales worked out to a seasonally adjusted 4.99 million annual rate in the most-recent month.
NAR reported that there were 2.020 million U.S. residential properties for sale at the end of last month. It would take 4.3 months to clear out the inventory.
The
median U.S. sales price was $232,200 in October 2016, while the average price was $274,300. Time on the market was 41 days.
First-time buyer share was 33 percent last month, while
all-cash share was 22 percent, and distressed share was 5 percent.
