Update on Home Sales and U.S. Mortgage Rates

A few additional interesting statistics to watch during this pandemic, is U.S. home sales and the corresponding mortgage rates. Please let me know if anyone has recently purchased a home and if they are comfortable sharing, please share your rate as well.

U.S. Home Sales:

• U.S home sales dropped to their lowest level in more than 9.5 years in May, which are caused by disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, there was the smallest annual home price increase in more than eight years. The slump in existing home sales reflected closings on contracts signed in March and April, when nearly the whole country was under lockdowns to slow the spread of the respiratory illness.
• Existing home sales fell 9.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million units last month, the lowest level since October 2010. It was the third straight monthly drop. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast existing home sales would fall 3% to a rate of 4.12 million units in May.
• Home resales, which make up about 90% of U.S. home sales, decreased 26.6% on a year-on-year basis in May, the largest annual decline since 1982. There were 1.55 million previously owned homes on the market in May, down 18.8% from a year ago.

U.S Mortgage Rates:

• Mortgage giant Freddie Mac says rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped last week to a new low in its survey that goes back nearly 50 years — and it's the fourth time that's happened since early March.
• Freddie Mac says the typical 30-year rate has dipped to 3.13%, but a survey of lenders from Mortgage News Daily found that average rates plunged below 3% for the first time ever earlier this month.
• Many experts are predicting that long-term mortgage rates could go lower. Some have predicted rates could go low as 3.0% and even under 3.0% for certain borrowers.
• There are some experts who say there is a risk of rising rates. Rates could just as easily begin to trend upward again, particularly if key economic data or measures to contain or treat the virus show meaningful improvements.