October existing home sales hit fastest pace since January

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes ticked higher in October, marking their strongest pace since January, even as resilient demand and competition for relatively few properties on the market kept prices climbing

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes ticked higher in October, marking their strongest annual pace since January even as competition for relatively few properties on the market pushed prices higher.

Existing homes sales rose 0.8% last month from September to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.34 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. That was stronger than the 6.18 million units that economists had been expecting, according to FactSet.

Sales fell 5.8% from October last year, when they peaked following a summer and fall surge as buyers who had held off during the early days of the pandemic jumped back into the market.

“It looks like the housing market is remaining strong, resilient and one may even say, (had) something like a mini surge, not the big one we saw last year,” said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist.