Existing home sales in the U.S. saw a modest increase in the month of April, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Wednesday.
NAR said existing home sales climbed 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in April from an upwardly revised 4.94 million in March.
Economists had been expecting existing home sales to rise to an annual rate of 5.0 million from the 4.92 million originally reported for the previous month.
Despite the modest monthly increase, NAR said existing home sales remain below underlying demand because of limited inventory and tight credit.
Nonetheless, existing home sales are at their highest annual rate since November of 2009, when sales spiked to 5.44 million in response to the home buyer tax credit.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said, "The robust housing market recovery is occurring in spite of tight access to credit and limited inventory. Without these frictions, existing-home sales easily would be well above the 5-million unit pace."
"Buyer traffic is 31 percent stronger than a year ago, but sales are running only about 10 percent higher," he added. "It's become quite clear that the only way to tame price growth to a manageable, healthy pace is higher levels of new home construction."
The report showed a seasonal increase in housing inventories, which jumped 11.9 percent to 2.16 million existing homes available for sale at the end of April.
Housing inventory represents 5.2 months of supply at the current sales pace, up from 4.7 months in March but well below the 6.6 months of supply a year ago.
NAR said the median existing-home price rose 4.8 percent to $192,800 in April from $183,900 in March. Prices are up 11.0 percent compared to the same month last year, reflecting the fourteenth consecutive month of year-over-year growth.
The report also showed that single-family home sales rose 1.2 percent to an annual rate of 4.38 million in April, while condominium and co-op sales fell 3.3 percent to an annual rate of 590,000.
Thursday morning, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release a separate report on new home sales in the month of April. Economists expect new home sales to climb to an annual rate of 425,000.
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