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The “Sale” and “Pending” signs in the West Seattle neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, USA, on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. The National Association of Real Estate Agents is scheduled to launch sales figures on existing housing on June 21.
David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty images
High mortgage rates and high prices of combined homes to crush housing sales in January.
Sales waiting for, which are based on signed contracts for existing homes, fell 4.6% from December to the lowest level since the National Association of Real Estate Agents began to track this metric in 2001. Sales fell 5.2% since January 2024. These sales are an indicator of future closures.
“It is not clear if the coldest January in 25 years contributed less buyers in the market, and if so, wait a greater sales activity in the coming months,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of Nar. “However, it is evident that high prices of homes and higher mortgage rates tense affordability.”
While the weather may have been a factor, sales increased month by month in the northeast and fell in the West, which would have seen the lowest impact of cold temperatures. Sales fell more in the south, which has been the most active region for housing sales in recent years.
Mortgage rates were also higher in January. The average rate on the popular 30 -year -old fixed loan spent the first half of December below 7%, but then began to increase. It was solidly exceeding 7% for all January, according to Mortgage News Daily.
Housing prices have been decreasing in recent months in certain areas, with more vendors that reduce prices, but at the national level they are still higher than they were a year ago.
This fall in sales also occurred despite the fact that the inventory of housing for sales in January, including houses under contract but that were not yet sold, increased by 17% compared to last year, growing annually during the 14th consecutive month, according to Realtor.com.
“More inventory for sale has the potential to generate more contracts of contracts, but the escalation in the home is not distributed evenly in the United States,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist of Realtor.com. “In addition, many areas with high demand see a relatively low sales inventory, which limits progress towards more housing sales.”
