Giddy, silly little smiles could be seen breaking across the staff’s faces this morning. It was after reading a recent article on HousingZone.com that presented encouraging statistics about home sales in the Atlanta region in the past year.

The article, “5 major cities where home sales are soaring,” which came out last week, posted Atlanta as the second leading metro area in the nation with home sales more than 25 percent ahead of last year.

Nationwide, existing home sales took a surprising jump in October, rising 13.5 percent from 2010. All but two of the nation’s largest metro areas (New York and Washington, D.C.) experienced sales increases over the past year, and five “ stood out from the pack, with sales up more than 25 percent this year.”

The Miami/Fort Lauderdale metro area was number one, with a 34.6 percent increase. Atlanta was not far behind though, with a 33.4percent increase, tied with the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. Cincinnati and New Orleans rounded out the top five, at 28.9 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Many other cities saw sales growth of at least 10 percent, including Phoenix, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth, Kansas City, Portland, Indianapolis and Boston.

This is great news not only for existing home sales, but for new home sales, the real estate industry and the economy as a whole. Experts agree that an improvement in existing home sales will indicate an improvement in new home sales (as existing homeowners find buyers for their current homes, enabling them to purchase a newly constructed home), which will also positively impact the economy all together.