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Mortgage Rates Rise, Pending Home Sales Drop

  • October 29th 2020

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Interest rates rose ever so slightly this week while news came that pending home sales dipped between August and September. 

On Thursday, 30-year interest rates rose to 2.81%, one basis point higher than the record low set last week. Long-term rates have now been below 3% for since the last week of July. 

Low rates have been spurring home purchase activity this year, but the National Association of Realtors reported that sales dropped in September. The Pending Home Sales Index fell 2.2% between August and September, but year-over-year, contract signings rose 20.5%.

"The demand for home buying remains super strong, even with a slight monthly pullback in September, and we're still likely to end the year with more homes sold overall in 2020 than in 2019," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. "With persistent low mortgage rates and some degree of a continuing jobs recovery, more contract signings are expected in the near future."

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/mortgage-rates-rise-pending-home-sales-drop/17468.

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