Existing Home Sales, which measures closings on existing homes, showed that sales were down 5.9% in October at a 4.43M annualized pace, which was slightly stronger than expectations looking for a 7% decline. On a year over year basis, sales are down 28%. Inventory has crested, as it does every time this year after the normal seasonal build and declined for the third straight month to 1.22M. There is now a 3.3 Months’ supply of homes, which is tight, because 4.6 months is considered normal. But if you look at active listings, there are only 754,000, which means that 38% of the “inventory” in the Existing Home Sales report is under contract and not truly available. This speaks to demand, as a normal market has 25% of inventory under contract. When looking at the month’s supply of available homes for sale, it’s really 2.5 months. Homes remained on the market on average for 21 days, up from 19 days. 64% of homes were on the market for less than 30 days. First Time Home Buyers have accounted for 28% of sales, which was a decline of 0.1% from the previous report, but amazingly the same level as this time last year. Cash buyers accounted for 26% of sales, which increased from 22% in the previous report, while investors purchased 16% of homes, which is up from 15%. Make sure to utilize the new Investment Property tool within MBS Highway. Foreclosures and short sales accounted for 1% of all transactions, which is down from 2%.