Pending home sales up for first time in six months | Bedford NY Real Estate

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Pending sales of homes slightly rose in November, the first gain in six months, signaling that upcoming activity could tick higher, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday.
                                       
NAR’s index of pending home sales increased 0.2% last month to 101.7, slightly above a 10-month low of 101.5 in October, but down from 103.3 in November 2012.
                                       
“We may have reached a cyclical low because the positive fundamentals of job creation and household formation are likely to foster a fairly stable level of contract activity in 2014,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.
                                       
Stocks /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtimeCOMP+0.55% remained flat after the data’s release.
Although higher mortgage rates have taken a bite out of housing-market activity, Yun said sales in 2013 will be the highest in seven years. Buyers are becoming accustomed to higher mortgage rates and pricier properties, economists say.
                                       
Looking forward, economists expect that further increases in mortgage rates won’t derail the housing market, if jobs growth is healthy enough, unleashing some of the demand that built up during and since the recession. And despite rising more than one full percentage point during 2013, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remains relatively low by historical standards.




http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pending-home-sales-up-for-first-time-in-six-months-2013-12-30

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