Existing home sales increased by almost 2% in October to 5.46 million, on an annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). This increase exceeds estimates of economists polled by Reuters who forecasted a sales increase of only 1.4%.
Strong home price appreciation is also climbing, up 6.2% from a year ago. This prompted Lawrence Yun, Chief Economists at the NAR to say, “Lack of inventory is pushing up prices way too fast.”