Home sales continued to drop in November – KION546

CNN Business' Anna Bahney reported that home sales in the United States fell for the 10th consecutive month in November due to a combination of stubbornly high prices and surging mortgage rates. All regions in the United States saw sales decline month-overmonth and year over year. This continues the slowing trend that started in February. It is also the longest period of declining sales ever recorded, dating back to 1999. Sales last month would have fallen to their lowest level since November 2010 if it wasn't for this anomalous month. According to Lawrence Yun (NAR chief economist), "In essence, residential real estate markets were frozen in November. This is similar to the sales activity during the Covid-19 economic lockdowns of 2020." The housing stock is still at historic lows. Many of the November sales would have been closed if contracts had been signed in October or early November, when mortgage rates were at their highest point in all of 2018. This was when they reached an average of 7.08% on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. According to Freddie Mac, this is as high as 7.08%. Some buyers are unable to qualify for loans due to the higher cost of financing their home purchase. Others have chosen not to apply. According to the report, November's median home price was $370,000. This is 3.5% more than one year ago. However, this is still below the record-breaking $413,800 recorded in June. Inventory levels remain near record lows. Few homeowners are willing to sacrifice the extremely low mortgage rates they have refinanced or purchased into in order to purchase a home with a higher rate. NAR reported that there were 1.14million units on the market at the end November. This is 6.6% less than October but an increase of 2.7% over one year ago. He said that the central bank had been increasing borrowing costs and shrinking its financial balance to fight high inflation since it had flooded the financial system in 2020 and 2021 with liquidity to support government-induced economic closure. The Fed hopes that a significant cooling of housing prices will result in a stronger pullback on inflation, as shelter costs account for a large portion of price gains. There are some signs that inflation is under control, according to the most recent data. Yun said that the market might be cooling as mortgage rates have fallen for five consecutive weeks. "The average monthly mortgage payment now amounts to almost $200 less than it was a few weeks ago, when interest rates were at their highest point for this year." LINK & __LINK__etwork, Inc., a Warner Bros. All rights reserved