Mortgage rates held below 4 percent for the third straight month – The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage fell in October to 3.80 from 3.89 percent in September.
Advertisement
“This is the same pattern of tight inventory and low first-time buyers that we’ve seen for several years now”.
Existing-home sales (which include single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops) decreased 3.4% in October, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) release Monday morning. 36 million units. September’s sales pace was unrevised at 5.55 million units and was the second highest since 2007. Sales of multi-family homes fell 1.6% in October at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 units.
U.S. Treasury debt prices rose to session highs after the report and the dollar was up against a basket of currencies.
The housing market has been relatively robust in many markets across the country.
Declining inventory is “disturbing”, said NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun.
The median forecast of 71 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for sales to pick up to a 5.4 million annual rate.
Housing is being supported by a strengthening labor market, which is boosting household formation by encouraging young adults to leave parental homes. “With supply already meager at the lower-end of the price range, competition from these buyers only adds to the list of obstacles in the path for first-time buyers trying to reach the market”. Purchases of multifamily properties – including condominiums and townhouses – fell 1.6 percent.
In the Midwest, existing-home sales slipped by 0.8% to an annual rate of 1.3 million in October, and are 8.3% above October 2014 sales. The appreciation was led by an 8 percent year-to-year advance in the West.
Total housing inventory fell 2.3% to 2.14 million existing homes. The supply of existing homes was 4.5% lower at the end of October, compared to the same period a year ago.
At October’s sales pace, it would take 4.8 months to clear the stock of houses on the market, up from 4.7 months in September.
Advertisement
The median price of homes sold in October, meanwhile, was 5.8% higher vs. a year ago at $219,600, the National Association of Realtors said. The bump in October home prices signals the 44th consecutive month of year-over-year increases.
