Existing Home Sales Increase 4.3% Month-Over Month and 26.6% Year-Over-Year in October

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) has reported that total existing-home sales in October, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 4.3% above September, to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.85 million in October. Year-over-year, sales as a whole were up 26.6%, (5.41 million in October 2019). This represents a supply of 2.5 months at the current sales rate. Down from 2.7 months in September. Total housing inventory at the end of October totaled 1.42 million units, down 2.7% from September and down 19.8% from one year ago (1.77 million). In prepared remarks, Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist said, “Considering that we remain in a period of stubbornly high unemployment relative to pre-pandemic levels, the housing sector has performed remarkably well this year.”