U.S. Existing-Home Sales Rose in November to New Postcrisis High
Source: Dow Jones Business News
By Ben Leubsdorf and Josh Mitchell
WASHINGTON--Home-buying activity increased in November for a third straight month to the strongest sales pace in nearly a decade, but rising prices and mortgage rates could restrain sales headed into 2017.
Sales of previously owned homes, which account for the vast majority of U.S. purchases, rose 0.7% from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.61 million last month, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That was the strongest monthly reading since February 2007.
Sales last month were up 15.4% compared with the same month a year earlier. The annual gain was exaggerated by a one- off plunge in sales during November 2015 that the NAR had blamed on new federal mortgages rules delaying closings.
Prices continued to rise in November as inventory continued to fall. At the current sales pace, it would take just 4.0 months to exhaust the supply of existing homes on the market. The median sales price last month was $234,900, rising 6.8% from a year earlier.
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/us-existinghome-sales-rose-in-november-to-new-postcrisis-high-20161221-00496
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