Existing home sales rise 5.5% in September, prices fall to lowest since early 2004

There are a heck of a lot of things going on in the market today, but that doesn't mean fundamental economic data goes completely out the window. We just got existing home sales data for September, for instance, and it showed ...

* Sales rose 5.5% to 5.18 million units (at a seasonally adjusted annual rate) from 4.91 million in August. That was also up from 5.11 million units a year earlier.

* The inventory of homes for sale dipped 1.6% to 4.266 million units from 4.335 million. The combination of a decline in raw homes for sale and a pickup in sales helped lower the "months supply at current sales pace" indicator of inventory to 9.9 months from 10.6 a month earlier.

* Home prices fell sharply, with the median price of an existing home dropping 9% from a year earlier to $191,600 from $210,500. It was also down 5.7% from August's $203,100. Home prices are now at their lowest level since April 2004 ($186,500).