by Calculated Risk on 11/18/2019 04:00:00 PM

From housing economist Tom Lawler: Early Read on Existing Home Sales in October

Based on publicly-available local realtor/MLS reports released across the country through today, I project that existing home sales as estimated by the National Association of Realtors ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million in October, down 0.4% from September’s preliminary pace but up 2.7% from last October’s seasonally adjusted pace.

On the inventory front, local realtor/MLS data, as well as data from other inventory trackers, suggest that the inventory of existing homes for sale at the end of October should be down by about 6.5% from a year earlier.

Finally, local realtor/MLS data suggest that the median US existing single-family home sales price last month was up by about 5.6% from last October.

CR Note: The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is scheduled to release October existing home sales on Thursday, November 21st at 10:00 AM ET. The consensus is for 5.49 million SAAR.