The bad news? Only because August's sales numbers were revised downward.

The federal government, which released the numbers this morning, said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales last month was 770,000 homes, vs. 735,000 in August. Its original estimate for August was 795,000. (And, as The Big Picture blog points out, the so-called increase is well within the survey's margin of error.)

Sales fell about 23 percent compared with September of last year, the government estimated.

On the other hand, the inventory of unsold homes shrank. About 520,000 homes were for sale at the end of last month, down 15,000 from August and 40,000 from a year ago.

But -- there's always a "but" nowadays, isn't there? -- a growing number of those unsold homes are finished and sitting empty, rather than planned or under construction.

I feel like that old Simpsons sketch.