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Tight Credit and High Prices Slow Home-Buying Plans

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans signing contracts to buy homes increased only slightly in September, as it remained difficult for some potential buyers to qualify for mortgage financing.

The National Association of Realtors said on Monday that its seasonally adjusted index of pending home sales rose 0.3 percent over the last month, to 105. The index remains half a percentage point below its 2013 average but 1 percent higher than a year earlier.

Tight credit and price increases have limited buying activity. About 15 percent of the real estate agents surveyed for the index said they could not close a deal because the buyer was unable to obtain a mortgage.

“We continue to see steady, albeit modest, improvement in this sector,” said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Pending sales are a barometer of future purchases. A one- to two-month lag usually exists between a contract and a completed sale. The number of contract signings increased in the Northeast and South last month, while declining in the West and Midwest.

Federal regulators approved plans last week to expand the availability of credit. Five agencies — including the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission — backed changes to the rules on how much risk banks can accept when they package and sell mortgage securities in their multitrillion-dollar market.

The modified rules should enable buyers to put down less money to acquire a home. Regulators ended a requirement that borrowers make a 20 percent down payment if the lending bank did not hold at least 5 percent of the mortgage securities tied on its books.

Average mortgage rates have fallen for the last five weeks. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage tumbled last week to 3.92 percent, its lowest point since the week of June 6, 2013, according to the government-supported mortgage finance company Freddie Mac.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: Tight Credit and High Prices Slow Home-Buying Plans. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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