Existing home sales increased last month for only the third time since May amid a tumultuous housing market featuring high mortgage rates.
Home sales in February rose a strong 9.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.38 million, the National Association of Realtors reported on Thursday. That is the largest increase since February of last year.
Mortgage rates, which recently have been inching higher, are still pricing out many would-be buyers and leading to people avoiding selling.
The pace of home sales is down 3.3% from the year before.
Total housing inventory at the end of February was 1.07 million units, up 5.9% from January and 10.3% from a year ago.
The median price of an existing home in February was $384,500, an increase of 5.7% from the year before. Additionally, homes typically remained on the market for 38 days in February, up from 36 days in January.
“Additional housing supply
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