Existing Home Sales Keep Rising
We received more data this morning that show the housing market with continued upward momentum.
Sales of existing homes rose 2.0 in October to their highest level in nearly 10 years, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. That follows a 3.6 percent gain in September.
There were gains across all four regions with the South, the largest region by activity, increasing 2.8 percent, followed by the Midwest up 2.3 percent, the Northeast up 1.4 percent, and the West gaining 0.8 percent.
The inventory of homes for sale fell by 0.5 percent to 2.02 million. That decline pushed the months’ supply (inventory divided by the current selling rate) to 4.3 months, down from 4.4 months in September, and the lowest since January.
While the levels of activity for sales and new construction remain at moderate levels by historical measures, the limited supply has kept the market fairly tight. Still, housing is likely to be a small net contributor for GDP growth in 2017.
Robert Hughes
Robert Hughes joined AIER in 2013 following more than 25 years in economic and financial markets research on Wall Street. Bob was formerly the head of Global Equity Strategy for Brown Brothers Harriman, where he developed equity investment strategy combining top-down macro analysis with bottom-up fundamentals. Prior to BBH, Bob was a Senior Equity Strategist for State Street Global Markets, Senior Economic Strategist with Prudential Equity Group and Senior Economist and Financial Markets Analyst for Citicorp Investment Services. Bob has a MA in economics from Fordham University and a BS in business from Lehigh University.
