The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury broke above 3% briefly Thursday morning, a bad sign for mortgage rates, but there could be a glimmer of hope anyway: a pending home sales index created by the National Association of Realtors experienced an unexpected jump in October.
According to NAR, pending home sales rose by 10.4% in October from September, but are still down 20% from a year ago.
The NAR index reflects contracts signed, not actual closings. The trade group said in a statement that "excellent housing affordability" conditions are drawing home buyers.
"It is welcoming to see a solid double-digit percentage gain, but activity needs to improve further to reach healthy, sustainable levels," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. "The housing market clearly is in a recovery phase and will be uneven at times, but the improving job market and consequential boost to household formation will help the recovery process going into 2011."
As National Mortgage News went to press the 10-year was at 2.96%.
Meanwhile, according to new figures released by Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is now 4.46%, a slight increase of six basis points from the previous week.
A year ago, 30 year conventional FRMs were being offered at 4.71%.
