US Existing Home Sales rose for the fifth month in a row

The National Association of Realtors said today that US existing home sales rose 4.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.85 million units in October versus 6.57 million units in September. Analysts had expected existing home sales to decline by 1.2% to 6.45 million units in October, and on an annual basis, existing home sales rose by 26.6% in the 12 months to October. The median existing home price rose 15.5% to a record high of $ 313,000 in October, and at the pace of October sales it would take 2.5 months to exhaust the existing inventory, its lowest level ever.