{"id":4425,"date":"2024-01-28T02:48:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T02:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/28\/pending-home-sales-post-biggest-jump-since-june-2020-as-mortgage-rates-fall\/"},"modified":"2024-01-28T02:48:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T02:48:52","slug":"pending-home-sales-post-biggest-jump-since-june-2020-as-mortgage-rates-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/28\/pending-home-sales-post-biggest-jump-since-june-2020-as-mortgage-rates-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Pending Home Sales Post Biggest Jump Since June 2020 as Mortgage Rates Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Getty Images<\/p>\n

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The numbers:<\/strong>\u00a0U.S. pending home sales shot up in December as falling mortgage rates brought buyers back into the market.<\/p>\n

Pending home sales rose 8.3% in December from the previous month, according to the monthly index released Friday by the National Association of Realtors.<\/p>\n

Pending home sales reflect transactions where the contract has been signed for a the sale of an existing home, but the sale has not yet closed. Economists view it as an indicator of the direction of existing-home sales in subsequent months.<\/p>\n

The jump in pending-home sales was the largest since June 2020, when it rose by 14.9%.<\/p>\n

The sales pace exceeded expectations on Wall Street. Economists were expecting pending home sales to increase by 2% in December.<\/p>\n

Transactions were up 1.3% from last year.<\/p>\n

The NAR also released an updated forecast for existing-home sales on Friday. The group expects existing-home sales to increase in 2024 by 13% from last year, to a 4.62 million pace.<\/p>\n

They expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates four times in 2024 and the 30-year mortgage to \u201cbounce along\u201d in the 6% to 7% range for most of the year.<\/p>\n

Big picture:<\/strong> The increases in contract signings and in\u00a0mortgage applications<\/a>, reported earlier in the week, indicate that there is pent-up demand from buyers who are motivated by falling mortgage rates.<\/p>\n

But the housing market\u2019s recovery is still limited by supply. Unless the so-called lock-in effect fades and more homeowners decide to sell their homes, sales will not be able to increase significantly.<\/p>\n

What the realtors said:<\/strong> \u201cThe housing market is off to a good start this year, as consumers benefit from falling mortgage rates and stable home prices,\u201d Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cJob additions and income growth will further help with housing affordability, but increased supply will be essential to satisfying all potential demand,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Market reaction:<\/strong> Stocks were up in early trading on Friday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note\u00a0rose above 4.1%.<\/p>\n

MarketWatch, the place where you can find the latest stock market, financial and business news. Cryptocurrency<\/a> is trending now, get the latest info on Bitcoin<\/a>, Ethereum<\/a>, and XRP<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Pending Home Sales Post Biggest Jump Since June 2020 as Mortgage Rates Fall<\/a> appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com\u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getty Images The numbers:\u00a0U.S. pending home sales shot up in December as falling mortgage rates brought buyers back into the market. Pending home sales rose 8.3% in December from the previous month, according to the monthly index released Friday by the National Association of Realtors. Pending home sales reflect transactions where the contract has been…Read More→<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}