the numbers us pendinghome sales fell 102 in september which is the fourth straight monthly drop according to the monthly index released friday by the national association of realtors nar the decline was much larger that forecast analysts polled by the wall street journal had forecast the pending home sales index to drop by 4 contract signings fell by doubledigits in all regions across the country pending home sales reflect transactions where the contract has been signed for an existinghome sale but the sale has not yet closed economists view it as an indicator for the direction of existinghome sales in subsequent months the fall in pending sales is preceded by a drop in mortgage application activity which fell in the latest week key details compared with a year earlier transactions were down by 31 pending sales fell all four major us regions led by the northeast which saw a 162 drop from last month followed by the west with a 117 drop the midwest with a 88 drop and the south where sales fell 81 this is the tenth time pending home sales have fallen in the last eleven months with rates above 7 buyers aren’t biting and sellers are having a hard time attracting bids sales have dropped so much that it’s dragged down economic activity in the second quarter sellers also not keen to give up their rockbottom interest rates the nar noted which means new supply isn’t hitting the market which then keeps prices up according to june data from the federal housing finance agency nearly a quarter of homeowners have mortgage rates of less than or equal to 3 and the vast majority of owners 93 have rates less than 6 what the realtors said “persistent inflation has proven quite harmful to the housing market” said lawrence yun chief economist at nar with the federal reserve hiking interest rates to address inflation the housing market finds itself with “far fewer buyers and even fewer sellers” he added though mortgage rates are high “the new normal for mortgage rates could be around 7 for a while” yun stated with rates doubling from a year ago on a 300000 mortgage mortgage borrowers are paying an additional 700 a month or more today yun said “only when inflation is tamed will mortgage rates retreat and boost home purchasing power for buyers” he added market reaction stocks djia spx were up in early trading on friday the yield on the 10year treasury note tmubmusd10y rose to almost 4