According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of existing homes increased 2.1 percent in October. The improvement put sales 10.9 percent above where they were a year ago. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said home sales continue to trend upward and, due to limited inventory and increasing demand, prices are also on the rise. The national median existing-home price was $178,000 in October, which is 11.1 percent above last year’s level. The price improvement marks eight straight months of year-over-year increases. Also, total housing inventory at the end of the month was down 1.4 percent. At the current sales pace, there is only a 5.4-month supply of available homes for sale, that is the lowest level since February 2006. More here and here.
