Existing home sales rose 0.6 percent in April to 4.97 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. Resale activity is 9.7 percent above the level in April 2012, putting sales at the highest pace since November 2009.
"The robust housing market recovery is occurring in spite of tight access to credit and limited inventory. Without these frictions, existing-home sales easily would be well above the 5-million unit pace," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, in a statement. "Buyer traffic is 31 percent stronger than a year ago, but sales are running only about 10 percent higher. It's become quite clear that the only way to tame price growth to a manageable, healthy pace is higher levels of new home construction."
While the NAR continues to blame slowing sales on low inventory, total housing inventory rose 11.9 percent, now representing a 5.2-month supply at the current sales pace compared with 4.7 months in March.
The average price for existing homes was up 11.0 percent over April 2012 to $192,800. April 2013 marked the 14th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases.
Median time on the market for all homes was 46 days in April, down from 62 days in March and 83 days the year before.
