WASHINGTON-Sales of existing homes rose 9.4 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million, according to figures from the National Association of Realtors.
The new total also represented a 9.2 percent increase over September 2008, and is also the highest monthly sales figure in this category since July 2007. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said existing home sales benefited from increasingly favorable market conditions and the $8,000 first-time homebuyers’ tax credit—which NAR, along with the National Association of Home Builders, has been urging the U.S. Congress to extend beyond its scheduled expiration next month.
Yun also said, however, that the housing market is still underperforming. “We’re getting early indications of price stabilization, but we need a steady supply of qualified buyers to meaningfully bring inventories down and return us to a period of normal, steady price growth and to fully remove consumer fears, which would then revive the broader economy,” Yun said.