After reporting a sharp increase in existing home sales in the U.S. in the previous month, the National Association of Realtors released a report on Wednesday showing another jump in existing home sales in the month of November.
NAR said existing home sales soared by 5.6 percent to an annual rate of 5.81 million in November from an upwardly revised 5.50 million in October.
Economists had expected existing home sales to rise to a rate of 5.52 million from the 5.48 million originally reported to the previous month.
With the much bigger than expected increase, existing home sales reached their highest level since hitting 6.42 million in December of 2006.
"Faster economic growth in recent quarters, the booming stock market and continuous job gains are fueling substantial demand for buying a home as 2017 comes to an end," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.
The report also said the median existing home price in November was $248,000, up 5.8 percent from the same month a year ago.
Total housing inventory dropped by 7.2 percent to 1.67 million existing homes available for sale at the end of November, representing 3.4 months of supply at the current sales pace.
NAR said single-family home sales surged up by 4.5 percent to an annual rate of 5.09 million, while existing condominium and co-op sales spiked by 14.3 percent to a rate of 720,000.
On Friday, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release a separate report on new home sales in the month of November. New home sales are expected to drop by 1.4 percent.
by RTT Staff Writer
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