Existing home sales bounced back very strongly in September, up 4.7 percent to nearly reverse the prior month's revised decline of 5.0 percent, a decline that now looks like an outlier. The month's annual sales rate, at 5.55 million, is just beyond Econoday's top-end forecast and the second best reading of the recovery. The year-on-year percentage gain, at plus 8.8 percent, is back where it was during the sales gains of the spring.

The gain is centered entirely in the single-family component which rose 5.3 percent to a 4.93 million rate to underscore the strength of demand. Sales of condos, which cost less, were unchanged at a 620,000 rate.

But the report's price data, in an echo of this morning's FHFA report, are on the soft side, down 2.9 percent for the median to $221,900. Year-on-year, the median is just over 6 percent, at 6.1 percent.