Home Resales Hit Two-Year High in September

Washington, DC, Oct. 23, 2009--Resales of U.S. houses jumped 9.4% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million, the highest in more than two years, the National Association of Realtors estimated Friday.

Sales as tracked by the NAR are up 24% from January's bottom, and are up 9.2% compared with a year ago.

The median forecast by economists looked for a smaller gain to a 5.38 million annual rate from a downwardly revised 5.09 million in August.

"Sales surged" in September, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the real estate trade group, who gave much of the credit for the increase to the federal government's soon-to-expire $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers.