real estate broker rebecca van camp places a sold placard on her sign in front of a home in meridian idaho on wednesday oct 21 2020 sales of previously owned homes in october rose 08 to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 634 million units according to the national association of realtors sales were 58 lower than october 2020 october of last year was the cyclical high in the market this measure represents closed sales for existing singlefamily homes and condominiums in october so contracts that were likely signed in august and september the closing process can take one to two months on average realtors are now predicting fullyear sales of over 6 million which would be the highest number of sales since 2006 sales remain very strong and i would attribute that to continuing job additions said lawrence yun chief economist for the realtors yun also pointed to an increase in investors in the market likely driven by soaring rents for singlefamily homes investors made up 17 of october buyers up from 13 in september and 14 in october of 2020 all cash buyers represented 24 of buyers most investors use all cash firsttime buyers represented 29 of sales compared with 32 a year ago historically that share is around 40 the supply of existing homes for sale continued to weaken there were 125 million homes available for sale at the end of october which is 12 lower compared with a year ago this represents a 24month supply at the current sales pace a 5 to 6month supply is considered a balanced market between buyer and seller weak supply and strong demand pushed the median price of an existing home to 353900 that is 131 higher compared with october 2020 by price category sales of homes priced under 250000 fell 24 year over year sales of homes priced between 750000 and 1 million rose 25 sales of milliondollar plus homes were up 31 buyers in october did not get a break from mortgage rates they rose steadily from the start of august through september the average rate on the popular 30year fixed loan was 278 on august 3rd according to mortgage news daily by october 29th it was 322 the rate as of last friday was 316 the latest read on sales of newly built homes from september showed a 14 jump from august builders continue to see strong demand due to the low supply of existing homes for sale some of the largest national builders however have said they are slowing sales due to supply chain and labor issues they are concerned they might not be able to deliver the homes on time