Existing home sales rose 2% in October yet remain 0.9% below the level reached in October 2016.

Mortgage News Daily reports Existing Home Sales Erase Summertime Losses.

For the second straight month the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) is reporting that sales of previously owned homes increased, this time by 2.0 percent. Single-family houses, townhouses, condos, and townhouses sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.48 million. The increase brought sales back to their strongest pace since June’s rate of 5.51 million, but they are still running behind sales in October 2016 by 0.9 percent.

September’s sales had been reported as up 0.7 percent from August, to 5.390 million, ending a three-month streak of losses. That gain has now been revised down to 5.37 million.

Single-family home sales climbed 2.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.87 million from 4.77 million in September, but they are still running 1.0 percent behind the 2016 pace. Existing condominium and co-op sales strengthened by 1.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 units, unchanged from a year earlier.

This was the second month of year-over-year declines. Hurricanes were a contributing factor as was inventory of homes.

Supply

The total supply decreased 3.2 percent to 1.80 million existing homes at the end of October, and is now 10.4 percent lower than a year ago. The supply of homes for sale has fallen year-over-year for 29 consecutive months. The current number of listings is estimated at a 3.9-month supply given the October sales pace, down from 4.4 months a year ago.

Median Price

The median house price declined to $247,000 from $247,600 in September but is 5.5% higher than in October of 2016, posting the 68th straight month of annual gains. The median existing single-family home price was $248,300 and the median condo price was $236,800. These were annual increases of 5.4 percent and 6.9 percent respectively.