Home-mortgage rates fell this week, with the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages retreating back below the psychologically significant 5% level, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey of mortgage rates.

Treasury yields, which hit multi-decade lows earlier this year, have been bobbing up and down recently after they retraced from a big rebound in the summer. Mortgage rates tend to follow the yields. Monday, the National Association of Realtors reported pending sales of previously owned homes rose in September for a eighth month in a row, and last week, the S&P Case-Shiller index showed US home prices increased in August for the fourth time in a row.

Wall Street Journal