NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this October, rose 1.9% after falling in September 2019. October’s sales of existing homes inclined 4.6% from October 2018. September’s existing-home sales reached a 5.46 million seasonally adjusted annual rate.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types reached $270,900 in October up 6.2 percent from a year ago.  Home price growth remains strong. This marks the 92nd consecutive month of year-over-year gains.

Regionally, all four regions showed growth in prices from a year ago. The West had the largest gain of 7.2% followed by the South with an increase of 6.3%. The Northeast had an increase of 5.2% and the West had the smallest gain of 4.5% from September 2018.

October’s inventory figures were down 2.7% from last month standing at 1.77 million homes for sale. Compared with October of 2018, inventory levels were down 4.3%. This would mark four straight months of year-over-year declines. It will take 3.9 months to move the current level of inventory at the current sales pace. It takes approximately 36 days for a home to go from listing to a contract in the current housing market, the same as last year.

From September 2019, two of the four regions showed increases in sales. The South had the biggest gain in sales at 4.4% followed by the Midwest with an incline of 1.6%. The West fell 0.9% followed by the Northeast with the biggest dip of 1.4%.

From a year ago, three of the four regions showed increases in sales while the Northeast was flat. The South had the biggest gain in sales at 7.8% followed by the West with an incline of 3.7%. The Midwest had the smallest increase of 2.4%.

The South led all regions in percentage of national sales, accounting for 43.0 % of the total, while the Northeast had the smallest share at 12.6%.

In October, single-family sales were up 2.1% and condominiums sales were flat compared to last month. Single-family home sales were up 5.4% while condominium sales down 1.7% compared to a year ago. Single-family homes had an increase in price up 6.2% at $273,600 and condominiums rose 5.6% at $248,500 from October 2018.