Us buyers "champing at the bit"

US homebuyers are "champing at the bit" in parts of the country, according to agents.

Speaking to AOL Real Estate, an agent in Indianapolis reveals that buyers are surging back onto the housing ladder. Indeed, while a typical open house attracts 10 people, mortgage executive Greg Block saw 45 people flock to an open house last month.

"The Realtor was dumbfounded," said Block, vice president of lending at Open Mortgages, which has branches near Indianapolis. "The winters were so brutal across the country that people just hunkered down and didn't do anything."

That pent-up demand is seeing buyers keen to snap up homes where possible, despite figures suggesting rising house prices and falling affordability.

Indeed, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that mortgage applications climbed 13 per cent in the pastfgishowing that the volume of home-purchase mortgage applications has climbed more than 13 percent in the past five weeks, near its highest point in two months.