Survey: Bump in purchases by first-time home buyers

Rising mortgage rates pressured first-time home buyers into packing up and buying a new home last month, resulting in a small spike in real estate sales in November, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

Home purchases by first-time buyers inched up, rising to 37.2 percent in November from 34.4 percent in October. Thomas Popik, the director of the HousingPulse survey, said the surge in interest rates have forced some potential buyers to snatch up properties before they become unaffordable.

“If rates go up much more, then a good percentage of them will no longer qualify for the properties they want," he said.

However, home purchases by investors have continued to decrease, possibly because the extensive inventory of "distressed" properties currently on the market may lead to lower sale prices in 2011, Popik said.

A record high in home foreclosures will result in U.S. homes losing $1.7 million in value in 2010, with homes losing $1 trillion between June and December alone, reported a recent analysis of Zillow Real Estate Market Reports. 

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