Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes increased last month to the fastest pace since February as lower mortgage rates helped pull more homebuyers into the market.

Existing home sales rose 1.2% in October from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.10 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

Sales climbed 1.7% compared with October last year. The latest sales figure topped the roughly 4.09 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

The national median sales price increased 2.1% in October from a year earlier to $415,200, an all-time high for any October on data going back to 1999. Home prices have risen on an annual basis for 28 months in a row.

The U.S. housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rate

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