Mortgage rates are forecast to reach 5.5 percent by the end of the year, and monthly mortgage payments will increase 8 percent. That could put homeownership more out of reach to first-time home buyers, realtor.com® researchers predict.

"Inventory will continue to increase next year, but unless there is a major shift in the economic trajectory, we don't expect a buyer's market on the horizon within the next five years," says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®'s chief economist. "Unfortunately for buyers, it's only going to get more costly to buy, especially the most-demanded entry level real estate. To be successful, buyers should think through how they'll adapt to higher rates and prices."  Read More from the National Association of Realtors.

Even though the week was shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday MBA's Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage application volume, managed a 5.5 percentincrease on a seasonally adjusted basis.  While the index was adjusted to account for the holiday, it was the largest increase since the week ended January 8, a period which followed a protracted holiday period. On an unadjusted basis the index dropped by 29 percent. 

The increase was driven by a large gain in the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index which rose 9 percent. The unadjusted index was down by 28 percent but was 2 percent higher than the same week in 2017, also a holiday shortened week.  The Refinancing Index was up 1.0 percent and the refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 37.9 percent of total applications from 38.5 percent the previous week.  Read more at Mortgage News Daily.

The views about the direction of home prices diverged slightly in September, as those reported in the S&P CoreLogic Case Shiller indices slowed for the second month in a row while those from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) for both September and the third quarter mostly kept chugging along.

The Case-Shiller National Home Price index which covers all nine U.S. census divisions slowed from a 5.7 percent increase in August to 5.5 percent.  On a non-seasonally adjusted basis the index gained 0.1 percent and was up 0.4 percent after adjustment.  The monthly appreciation in August was reported at 0.2 percent unadjusted and 0.6 percent afterward.  Read more at Mortgage News Daily.