Housing Sales Rise, Aided by Falling Mortgage Rates

by admin on 08/10/09 at 12:11 pm

In further signs that the housing market is finally recovering after three years of turmoil, new data shows that home sales have increased and mortgage rates have again dipped below 5 percent. According to mortgage company Freddie Mac, the average for 30-year fixed rate loans was 4.94%, down from 5.05% last week.

These low home loan rates, combined with the federal tax credit for first time homebuyers drove up the number of signed home sales contracts for the seventh straight month, the National Association of Realtors reported. The association said that its index of sales agreements rose 6.4 percent from July to 103.8, beating forecasts. The index was 12 percent higher than a year ago, matching similar reporting on home sales from the Case-Shiller home sales index.

The decline in mortgage rates is significant in that the economy appears to be picking up steam, leading many analysts to predict interest rates would start to rise. This clearly hasn’t happened yet, as last week’s rates were the lowest since May when it was 4.91 percent. Mortgage rates hit their record lowest point of 4.78 percent in the spring.