Existing home sales perked up in october

Home sales perked up in October, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors.

October existing home sales were up 1.4 percent, rising modestly to 4.97 million units from a downwardly revised 4.90 million in the previous month. The number of homes on the market continued to decline in October, the new NAR data showed.

Contract failures jumped to 33 percent in October from 18 percent in September, the association said. Contract failures are cancellations caused by declined mortgage applications, failures in loan underwriting from appraised values coming in below the negotiated price, or other problems including home inspections and employment losses.

“Other recent factors include disruption in the National Flood Insurance Program, and lower loan limits for conventional mortgages, which paradoxically force some of the most creditworthy consumers to pay unnecessarily higher interest rates,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR.

Source: MSN.com