Existing home sales tick up in October

Existing home sales gained some vigor last month, rising 1.5% to their fastest pace in more than a year, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

Sales came in at a 5.26 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, the highest since September 2013, the Realtors said. October sales were up 2.5% from a year earlier, the first month this year that sales showed year-over-year gains.

"Sales activity in October reached its highest annual pace of the year as buyers continue to be encouraged by interest rates at lows not seen since last summer, improving levels of inventory and stabilizing price growth," said Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist.

There are more homes on the market than a year ago, but last month's pickup in buyers wasn't matched in the supply of homes for sale. The inventory fell 2.6% to 2.22 million — a 5.1 month supply, which is the lowest since March. A 6-month supply is considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers.

The NAR's figures are based on completed transactions and include single-family homes, condominiums, townhomes and co-ops.

Single-family home sales alone rose 1.3% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.63 million in October.

The median existing single-family home price was $208,700 in October, up 5.6 percent from October 2013. The median price for all types of existing homes was $208,300, up 5.5% from a year earlier.

First-time buyers held at a historically low 29% for the fourth straight month. That group of buyers has represented less than a 30% share for 18 of the past 19 months, according to the NAR. A separate NAR survey recently said the annual share of first-time buyers is at its lowest level in almost 30 years.

The West was the only region where sales fell last month, by 5.0%. Sales rose 2.8% in the South, 5.1% in the Midwest and 2.9% in the Northeast.