Freddie Home Sales Forecast Tops NAR's

Meanwhile, Freddie Mac is now predicting a home sales record for this year even higher than that of a recently revised forecast by the National Association of Realtors.In its July economic outlook, the government-sponsored enterprise foresees total single-family home sales of 6.91 million units, which would exceed last year's record of 6.54 million by 5.6%. (The NAR is forecasting 5.73 million sales of existing single-family homes in 2003, and 1.0 million sales of new homes, for a total of 6.73 million.) Freddie Mac is also forecasting economic growth of only 1.5% for the second quarter, but with significantly higher growth of 3.5% to 4.0% in the second half and in 2004. As for mortgage rates, the GSE expects 30-year fixed rates to average 5.3% for the rest of the year and 5.6% next year. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.