Existing home sales increased 4% in November to an annualized4.42 million units, seasonally adjusted, according to NAFCU.

Sales of single-family homes rose 4.5%, while sales ofcondominiums went unchanged from October. In year-over-year,existing home sales were up by 12.2%, NAFCU said in the Macro DataFlash Report it issued this week.

Every region reported positive sales growth during November, with the Northeastseeing the strongest increase at 9.8%. The Midwest, 4.3%, came insecond; the West, 3.6%, was third; and the South was in last with a2.4% growth, the report said.

Year-over-year sales were also up in all four regions, with theMidwest reporting the strongest increase at 15.7%. The South wassecond at 12.3%, the West was third with 11.5% and the Northeastwas in last with a 7.7% increase.

The median home price of a non-seasonally adjusted existing homeincreased by 2.1% to $164,200 in November, but was down by 3.5%from the previous November. Year-over-year median home prices fellin all four regions, with the biggest decline coming in the West at8.4%. The Midwest's 4% decline was the second biggest, the South's2.1% decline was third and the Northeast's 0.1% decline was thesmallest.

The months that homes were available for sale decreased from 7.7months of supple in October to seven months of supply in November,NAFCU said. The inventory level decreased by 5.8% from October andfell by 18.1% from a year ago, which resulted in 2.58 millionunsold homes in the market.

“Existing home sales increased 4% from October, beatinganalysts' expectations,” said NAFCU Chief Economist Tun Wai. “TheNational Association of Realtors revised prior data afterconfessing to double-counting properties going back to January2007. Annual sales figures were slashed by an average of 14%, butgrowth rates were mostly unchanged.

“The supply of homes on the market was also revised downward,while home price data was unaffected. The seven months of supply onhand in November is the lowest figure for 2011. Distressed homesaccounted for 29 percent of total sales in November, up onepercentage point from October. While the housing market has enjoyeda mild improvement during the second half of the year, low jobgrowth and tight credit will prevent any sizable gains heading into2012.”