NAR reports rise in US homes sales in November

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has today revealed sales of previously owned homes rose more than expected in November, offering hope that the housing market may slowly be recovering from its slump.

The industry body said sales grew 5.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual unit rate of 4.68 million, up from October’s 4.43 million units.

The figure marginally exceeded economists’ forecasts of a rise to 4.65 million sales but still remains way below the peak of 6.49 million in November 2009, when sales were boosted by the Government’s homebuyer tax credit scheme.

Commenting on today’s figures, Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR, said: “Continuing gains in home sales are encouraging, and the positive impact of steady job creation will more than trump some negative impact from a modest rise in mortgage interest rates.”

In other news today, the Commerce Department revealed the US economy grew by an annualised 2.6% in the July to September period – slightly higher than the second estimate of 2.5% but much faster than the first estimate of 2%.

However, the growth rate was less than the 3% most analysts had expected.

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