Economic Watch: Existing Home Sales Best Since June, Leading Indictors Jump
Existing-home sales increased in October to their strongest pace since earlier this summer, according to a new report, while a separate one showed the overall U.S. economy continued growing at a strong pace last month.
Total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.48 million in October from a downwardly revised 5.37 million in September, according to the National Association of Realtors on Tuesday.
After last month’s increase, sales are at their strongest pace since June and but still remain 0.9% below a year ago.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said sales activity in October picked up for the second straight month, with increases in all four major regions.
“Job growth in most of the country continues to carry on at a robust level and is starting to slowly push up wages, which is in turn giving households added assurance that now is a good time to buy a home,” he said. “While the housing market gained a little more momentum last month, sales are still below year ago levels because low inventory is limiting choices for prospective buyers and keeping price growth elevated.”
According to Yun, the residual effects on sales from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are still seen in parts of Texas and Florida. However, sales should completely bounce back to their pre-storm levels by the end of the year, as demand for buying in these areas was very strong before the storms.”
The median existing-home price for all housing types in October was $247,000, up 5.5% from October 2016. October’s price increase marks the 68th straight month of year-over-year gains.
Single-family home sales, the largest share of the new home market, climbed 2.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.87 million in October from 4.77 million in …Read the rest of this story
