Mortgage rates, home sales hit 4-month high

Mortgage rates are soaring right along with home sales, with both rising to four-month highs, according to data released Thursday.

Home buyers may be shopping now to try to get ahead of the Federal Reserve as the board considers a potential interest-rate increase before the end of the year, which would lead to higher borrowing costs. Many were lured to check into buying their first home by historic low mortgage rates.

But some potential buyers are finding there aren't a lot of worthy homes for sale, which is leading to higher prices.

The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for the week ending Thursday was 3.52%, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

That reflected a 0.05 percentage point increase from last week's 3.47%. But it was still lower than a year earlier, when rates averaged 3.79%.

Rates hadn't topped 3.5% since June, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac.

Separately, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes rose 3.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.47 million, the highest mark since June. Sales rose across the country.

The supply of available homes was 2.04 million, down 6.8% from a year ago. Tight inventories drove the median price of existing homes up 5.6% from a year ago to $234,200. The institutional investors who bought up homes in recent years have continued to rent them out rather than putting them on the market. Moreover, homebuilders have not aggressively stepped up construction.

Meanwhile, Freddie Mac reported that 15-year fixed rate mortgages averaged 2.79%, up from 2.76% a week earlier and down from 2.98% a year earlier.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.