Previously owned Metro Atlanta home sales climbed in September to the highest level in a year, pointing to growing confidence in the U.S. economy as employment firms.
Nationwide, purchases advanced 2.4 percent to a 5.17 million annual rate. Demand was up 1.9 percent compared with the same month last year before adjusting for seasonal patterns.
Of all Metro Atlanta home sales, cash transactions accounted for about 24 percent, down from 33 percent 12 months earlier, the report showed. Investors, 63 percent of whom paid cash, represented 14 percent of the market last month, down from 19 percent in September 2013.
Distressed sales, comprised of foreclosures and short sales, in which the lender agrees to take less than the balance of the mortgage, made up 10 percent of the total.
"The traditional Metro Atlanta home buyer — the person who takes out a mortgage loan to buy a Metro Atlanta home — seems to be growing in strength over the past year and we expect that to continue,” according to Robert Stein, deputy chief economist at First Trust Portfolios LP in Wheaton, Illinois, who is among the best forecasters of existing home sales over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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