Throughout the nation, October homes sales were up. All regions with the exception of the Northeast experienced increases. Home sales in the month of October rose by 1.4 percent to an annual rate of 4.97 million homes, from 4.90 million in September, according to the National Association of Realtors. Year over year, the rate of sales has gone up by 13.5 percent, from 4.38 million units.
The current inventory at the end of October was 3.33 million homes, representing an 8-month supply, down from an 8.3-month supply in September. Foreclosures and short sales comprised 28 percent of the total sales in October, down from 30 percent in September. In spite of the uptick in home sales, contract failures have jumped up to 33 percent, up from 18 percent in September. The availability of remarkably low interest rates have teased some buyers who applied for mortgages but were declined either because of insufficient financing or failures in loan underwriting.
Moe Veissi, Persident of the National Association of Realtors, reminds prospective buyers to understand how credit scores work. Consumers who want to take advantage of these historic rates ought to forego purchasing other big ticket items, like a vehicle, and installing new credit lines. He advises buyers to pay the bills on time, to maintain existing credit lines, and to use no more than 30 percent of their credit limit.