After falling 3.6 percent in September, existing single-family home sales rose 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.38 million in October, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The latest figure puts existing single-family home sales 13.8 percent higher than the 3.85 million-unit pace one year ago. However, existing single-family home prices fell: The median existing single-family home price was $161,600 in October, which is 5.8 percent below October 2010.
After falling 3.6 percent in September, existing single-family home sales rose 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.38 million in October, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The latest figure puts existing single-family home sales 13.8 percent higher than the 3.85 million-unit pace one year ago. However, existing single-family home prices fell: The median existing single-family home price was $161,600 in October, which is 5.8 percent below October 2010.
Overall, existing home sales-including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops-rose 1.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in October. The latest figures put existing home sales 13.5 percent above the 4.38 million unit level in October 2010.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the market has been fairly steady but at a lower level than desired. "Home sales have been stuck in a narrow range despite several improving factors that generally lead to higher home sales such as job creation, rising rents and high affordability conditions. Many people who are attempting to buy homes are thwarted in the process," he said.
Yun added that contract failures are contributing too much downward pressure on sales. Contract failures reported by NAR members jumped to 33 percent in October from 18 percent in September. In October 2010, contract failures were at 8 percent, Yun said.
Housing inventories, meanwhile, continue to show improvement. Total housing inventory at the end of October fell 2.2 percent to 3.33 million existing homes, which represents an 8-month supply at the current sales pace, down from an 8.3-month supply in September. Inventories have been gradually trending down since setting a record of 4.58 million in July 2008.
"In some areas we're hearing about shortages of foreclosure inventory in the lower price ranges with multiple bidding on the more desirable properties," Yun said. "Realtors in such areas are calling for a faster process of getting foreclosure inventory into the market because they have ready buyers. In addition, extending credit to responsible investors would help to absorb inventory at an even faster pace, which would go a long way toward restoring market balance."
