John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... The number of unsold homes on the market last month marked the lowest inventory for an October since at least 2001, as I reported in an earlier blog.
But the flipside of that is that the weekly sales rate is the highest for an October since at least 2001.
The weekly sales rate hit almost 6 percent in October. In other words, there were fewer homes on the market, but buying activity was strong. The data shows that on average, 5.99 percent of the homes were placed under contract each week last month. The sales rate was 51.6 percent higher than the 3.95 percent reported in October 2009. And the sales rate is 185 percent higher than in 2003, when it stood at only 2.10 percent.
Below is a chart showing the weekly sales rate each October from 2001 through 2009.
.
Year Sales Rate
2001 2.48%
2002 2.24%
2003 2.10%
2004 2.42%
2005 4.26%
2006 3.66%
2007 3.71%
2008 4.50%
2009 5.99%
[...] of placed under contract each week, at almost 6 percent of the inventory, also is apparently a record for an [...]
[...] Record sales rate in October [...]