| “Since 1971, there have been only five months when mortgage interest rates were lower, and all of those have been during the last year and a half,” said David Lereah, the association’s chief economist. “The good news is that interest rates have been fairly stable over the last month, hovering near generational lows, and that is increasing the purchasing power of buyers trying to get into the housing market,” he said. Housing inventory levels at the end of September rose 0.4% from August to 2.45 million, a 4.4-month supply, the Realtors® reported. Existing home sales in September rose 7.8% in the West, 4.1% in the Northeast and 3.7% in the Midwest. They slipped 0.7% in the South. | 
