Americans bought homes in October at the fastest pace in nearly decade, helped out by low mortgage rates that have since started to climb following the presidential election of Donald Trump.
The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that sales of existing homes rose 2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.6 million. Sales reached their strongest pace since February 2007, a sign that the market is still healing from the collapsing prices and foreclosures that ignited the 2008 financial crisis.
In Chattanooga, home sales grew even faster, rising 3.5 percent in October over year ago levels, according to the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors. In the first 10 months of 2016, sales of new and existing homes in the Chattanooga area rose 9.4 percent to a total of 8,152 homes, pushing 2016 sales to another record high for local Realtors.
“There is a strong demand for new homes right now and our inventory of homes on the market is much less than it has been, which is pushing up prices,” said Nathan Walldorf, president of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors.
The median price of homes sold last month in Chattanooga was $171,000, up 14 pecent from October 2015. Despite the hefty price increase, home prices in Chattanoooga still 26.3 percent below the U.S. median price of $232,000.