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Finding a house to buy these days is only a little easier than finding a needle in a haystack.
Existing home sales rose modestly in September despite the hurricanes in the Houston area and Florida, but the pace was still 1.5% below the year-ago level, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.
The chief culprit is a national housing supply that remains at a 20-year low of 4.2 months — the time it would take to run out of homes for sale if no new units were added – down from 4.5 months a year ago. A six-month inventory is considered balanced.