Home Sales Activity Increasing
Pending home sales jumped by 7.4 percent in the latest month, according to the National Association of Realtors, which is the strongest figure in more than a year.
The pending home sales index measures new contracts for home purchases that haven’t yet closed, but are expected to do so in the near future. It’s a widely accepted predictor of sales activity two to three months down the road.
As you’ll know, I don’t put great faith in NAR statistics but there does seem to be some mounting evidence that pent-up demand for housing, plus rock bottom bargain prices in many markets, may have finally convinced buyers that this is a good time to get off the sidelines and into the game.
Mortgage rates and new loan applications also defied the negative spiral in the stock market: Applications for home purchases to be financed with conventional mortgages jumped by three percent last week, and new FHA applications were up by nearly 10 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s national survey.
Interest rates on 30 year fixed rate loans dropped to 5.9 percent and 15 year rates hit 5.7 percent.
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