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The September decline in pending home sales was reported a day before the Fed begins a two-day policy meeting. Fed policymakers are unlikely to reduce their efforts to stimulate the economy, which includes $85-billion-a-month in bond purchases. Those purchases are intended to lower longer-term interest rates and spur more borrowing and spending. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had suggested in late May that the Fed might slow the bond-buying program by the end of the year. But in September, the Fed held off after expressing concerns that rising mortgage rates were slowing economic growth. The impact of the 16-day partial government shutdown is likely slowing growth in the final three months of the year. As a result, many economists expect the Fed will continue its current level of bond-buying until next year.
[Associated
Press;
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