Sales of previously owned homes exceeded estimations for July, reaching their fastest pace since November 2009 as more buyers jumped into the market to beat rising interest rates. The purchase of previously owned homes rose 6.5% to an annual rate of 5.39 million units in July, the National Association of Realtors reported.
Bloomberg elaborated on the report's findings:
“If you look at housing affordability it’s still very attractive,” Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies LLC in New York, said before the report. “The rise in mortgage rates is probably going to start having a little bit of an effect in the fall. I do think we’ll see improvement continue but at a little bit of a slower pace as the year progresses, and frankly that’s probably a healthy sign.”
