After plunging 27% in July, sales of existing single-family homes rebounded 7.4% in August as buyers took advantage of historically low mortgage rates and affordable prices.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that sales of previously owned single-family homes rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.62 million units in August from a 3.37 million rate in July.
Sales of existing condominiums and co-ops rose 8.5% in August from the previous month.
NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said: "The housing market is trying to recover on its own power without the homebuyer tax credit."
He noted that house prices have stabilized over the past year thanks to the tax credit that expired June 30.
"Now that the economy is adding some jobs, the housing market needs to steadily improve and eventually stand on its own," Yun said.
However, the home buying market received some potentially bad news Thursday morning when the government reported that initial jobless claims ticked up to 465,000 for the week ending Sept. 18 — from an upwardly revised reading of 453,000 the prior week.
