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Sales of existing homes rose in November, notching the biggest year-over-year gain in more than three years after a higher supply of homes for sale gave buyers more opportunities. The inventory of homes for sale has been extremely low in recent years because homeowners haven't wanted to give up their low mortgage rates by selling and moving. But supply has risen this year, in part because some of those homeowners are getting impatient, especially if they have had a life change like a new baby or a job relocation. Nationally, there were 1.33 million homes for sale or under contract at the end of November. That was down 2.9% from October but up 17.7% from November 2023, the National Association of Realtors® said Thursday. U.S. existing-home sales rose 4.8% from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.15 million, the highest level since March, NAR said. November sales rose 6.1% from a year earlier, the biggest gain since mid-2021. The recent uptick in supply and sales offers hope that next year could be an improvement after this long period of sluggish activity, according to Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. "The extreme tightness in inventory is over," he said. "We are seeing sales increase because of this increase in inventory."