National Association of Realtors economist Lawrence Yun

WASHINGTON, DC—Sales of existing homes including for-sale apartments were up 2% in October to reach their strongest pace in months, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. However, the pace is still slower by 0.9% than a continued shortage of inventory led to fewer closings on an annual basis for the second consecutive month.

“Job growth in most of the country continues to carry on at a robust level and is starting to slowly push up wages, which is in turn giving households added assurance that now is a good time to buy a home,” says Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. “While the housing market gained a little more momentum last month, sales are still below year ago levels because low inventory is limiting choices for prospective buyers and keeping price growth elevated.”

The median existing-home price for all housing types in October was $247,000, up 5.5% from the year-ago period and representing the 68th straight month of year-over-year gains. For apartments including condominiums and co-ops, October's median existing price was $236,800, up 6.9% Y-O-Y.

For-sale apartments also fared marginally better than single-family homes on a Y-O-Y basis in terms of sales volume. October's annualized pace of 610,000 condo and co-op sales was flat compared to a year ago, while for single-family homes, the annualized rate of 4.87 million units is 1% lower than October 2016, although the monthly increase was slightly greater than that for apartments.

Total housing inventory at the end of October fell 3.2% from September to 1.8 million existing homes available for sale. It's now 10.4% lower than a year ago and has fallen Y-O-Y for 29 consecutive months. Unsold inventory is at a 3.9-month supply at the current sales pace, which is down from 4.4 months a year ago.

Three of NAR's five hottest metro areas for October—measured in terms of time on the market and listings views per property—were in Northern California. They included San Jose, Vallejo-Fairfield and San Francisco. Rounding out the top five for the month were San Diego and Boston.

Instant Insights /

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