Existing Home Sales Continue to Rise

While they're still significantly trailing last year's figures, home sales data from the National Association of Realtors shows that the residential real estate market may be showing more signs of a steady recovery.

According to the NAR, the volume of sales jumped a seasonally-adjusted 10 percent in September compared to the previous month. While that number was still 19 percent below sales from September 2009, economists were generally optimistic.

"A housing recovery is taking place but will be choppy at times depending on the duration and impact of a foreclosure moratorium," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. "But the overall direction should be a gradual rising trend in home sales with buyers responding to historically low mortgage interest rates and very favorable affordability conditions."

The one soft spot in the report was a drop in the median sales price of homes, which fell 2.4 percent compared to a year ago to $171,000. That drop also occured amid a drop in housing inventory, which fell from 12 months to 10.7 months.

However, the positive report may not be enough to prevent further Federal Reserve action to spur the market. Analysts told Reuters they still expected the Fed to take steps to lower interest rates even further.