October Sales Equal to September Sales

Considering how bad of a month September was for existing home sales, it is not surprising that sales in October were able to match September.  There were about 3420 existing home sales in October which is on par with September’s sales of 3430.  Typically, October is less than September, but there has really been nothing typical about the current market.  September was affected largely by the credit issues in mid-August it was not surprising to see those sales dip.  October saw the sale of some of those homes that would have sold in September if it weren’t for the credit crunch.  As credit issues subside we should see some increases in home sales.  Unfortunately, we are entering the two slowest months of the year for homes sales, November and December.  As of today there are just over 57,300 active listings in the ARMLS.  At the current sale rate we have over 16 months of inventory.  Of the active listings 48.6% or 27,842 properties are vacant.  Needless to say, until the number of listings declines considerably the market has little chance of improving.