MNI: US Oct Existing Home Sales Up 1.2% To 4.10M SAAR - NAR

U.S. existing-home sales edged higher 1.2% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.10 million, according to the National Association of Realtors on Thursday, largely meeting expectations and the fastest annualized pace since February. Sales year-over-year are up 1.7%.

Home sales increased in October even with the government shutdown due to homebuyers taking advantage of lower mortgage rates, said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. To get home sales back to more normal pre-Covid levels would require "drastically larger supply" and "also much more meaningful decline in mortgage rates," Yun said. "I don't think we will get there next year." 

The national median home price was up 2.1% over the last year to USD415,200. 

The inventory of unsold existing homes decreased 0.7% to 1.52 million units, equal to 4.4 months’ supply. "We still need additional 300,000 homes to appear on the market to get us just back to the pre-Covid condition," Yun said. "We are still tight on inventory."