U.S. home sales at their best pace since 2007

WASHINGTON — Americans bought more homes in June, the fourth straight monthly gain as the sales rate reached its highest level in more than nine years.

The National Association of Realtors said this past week that sales of existing homes rose 1.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million, the best performance since February 2007. Buyers are quickly making offers amid tight supplies of homes on the market, boosting prices as the traditional buying season reached its crescendo.

The solid job market and mortgage rates near historic lows have kept demand steady, even though the number of listings on the market has dropped.

But continued sales gains appear to be limited this year because of the acute shortage of listings.

The median home sales price was $247,700 in June, up 4.8 percent from a year ago.