WASHINGTON - Existing home sales surged 9.4% in September to a 5.57 million annual rate, the highest pace of sales in more than two years, the National Association of Realtors announced today.
The months supply of existing homes available fell to 7.8 months, the lowest figure in two and a half years.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected existing homes to sell at a 5.35 million annual rate in September, according to the median estimate. Sales in August were revised to a 5.09 million rate from the initially reported 5.1 million sales pace. The 5.24 million existing sales rate in July had been the highest monthly sales pace in 23 months.
The median home price was $174,900, an 8.5% decline from September of 2008. It was the smallest percent decline in 13 months. The median sale price fell 1.4% from August.
Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist, said the NAR is still lobbying for an extension to the federal tax credit for first-time home buyers. “Clearly the tax credit is inducing buyers back into the market,” he said. However, if sale prices continue to decline, “I don’t see how the economy can return,” he said. The extension of the tax credit would take the “consumer fear factor out of the picture,” he said.
Mortgage applications for new home purchases dropped 7.6% the Mortgage Bankers Association reported on Wednesday. The number of new housing starts rose 0.5% in September as building permits declined 1.2%, the Commerce Department reported last week.
Lawmakers in Washington are growing receptive to the housing industry’s lobbying effort to extend the tax credit. Earlier this week, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., called for extending the $8,000 tax credit through the first half of 2010.
