Home sales in U.S. climb

WASHINGTON— More Americans bought homes in September, many for the first time, despite a persistent shortage of properties for sale.

The National Association of Realtors said this past week that sales of existing homes rose 3.2 percent from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.47 million, the strongest pace since June. Sales rose across the country.

Demand is solid but supplies are weak. A solid job market and low mortgage rates are bringing buyers into the market, but they’re not finding many homes for sale.

The supply of available homes stood at 2.04 million units, down 6.8 percent from a year ago. Tight inventories drove the median price of existing homes up 5.6 percent from a year ago to $234,200.

The institutional investors who bought up homes in recent years have continued to rent them out rather than putting them on the market.

Moreover, homebuilders have not aggressively stepped up construction. The Commerce Department reported last week that home construction fell 9 percent in September to the slowest pace in 18 months.

Still, the association said first-time home buyers accounted for 34 percent of the purchases, the most since July 2012. Last week, the real estate firm Zillow released a report showing a surprise increase in first-time homebuyers over the past year — good news for the housing market because homeownership rates for adults under 34 have been at record lows.