Source: Yahoo! —
If the U.S. residential housing market were a vehicle, it would be stuck in park right now. And while some opportunities may be coming that would allow investors to shift back into drive, the overriding consensus is to keep the car in the driveway for now.
Home prices are too high to appeal to buyers facing skyrocketing mortgage rates. But sellers are hesitating to lower asking prices as the year ends. And just like last summer, buyers are also walking away as interest rates continue to be high, though they’ve dropped some in the past few weeks to under 7%. According to Redfin Corp. (NASDAQ: RDFN), which has its own issues after recent layoffs and the closing of its home-flipping business, around 64,000 home-purchase agreements fell through in August, representing more than 15% of homes under contract that month.
In addition, mortgage loan application volume decreased by 0.8% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s index.
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