U.S. home sales rose 0.9% from a year earlier to $350,250 in the four weeks ended January 15, the biggest increase in a month, according to a new report. Redfin. Rates remain elevated as consumer activity begins to pick up as mortgage rates decrease due to slower inflation. Mortgage rates fell to 6.15% in the week ending January 19, their lowest level since September. Pending home sales fell 29% year-over-year – a big drop, but the first below-30% drop in three months. Mortgage-for-sale applications rose 25% from the previous week to the week ending Jan. 13, a jump that could lead to more pending sales. in the coming months.
As demand slows down, some homeowners are reluctant to sell. New listings of homes for sale fell 20% year-on-year in the four weeks ended January 15 – but this was the smallest decline in two months.
“People who started searching for homes online and scheduled home visits by the end of 2022 are now home buyers,” said Redfin Senior Vice President Economist Taylor Marr. “Lower sales, lower mortgage rates and sales have brought some buyers back into the market. That helps keep the country’s home prices down, which is one of the bright spots for buyers. But many buyers are still sitting on the sidelines and demand could drop if the economy weakens more than expected or mortgage rates rise again.
Home prices fell year-over-year in 18 of the 50 most populous US metros in the four weeks ending January 15. In contrast, 20 metros saw a decline in prices in the first four weeks and 11 metros saw prices fall in the previous month. .
Prices fell 10.1% year over year in San Francisco, 6.7% in San Jose, 5.5% in Austin, 4.3% in Detroit, 3.8% in Seattle, 3.7% in Phoenix, 3.4% in Sacramento, 3.1% in San Diego, 2.8% in Anaheim (Calif.), 2.5% in Chicago, 2.4% in Los Angeles, 2.3% in Oakland (Calif.) and 2.2% in Boston. It fell below 2% in Riverside, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; New york; Newark, NJ; and Las Vegas.
For the week ending January 19, 30-year mortgage rates fell to 6.15%. The daily average was 6.04% on January 18.
Mortgage-purchase applications in the week ending Jan. 13 rose 25% from the week before, seasonally adjusted. Sales requests were down 35% from the year before.
Google searches for “homes for sale” rose about 30% from their November low in the week ending January 14, but fell to about and 26% from the previous year.
Unless otherwise noted, this data covers the four-week period ending January 15. Redfin’s weekly housing market data returns in 2015. Home sales were $350,000, up 0.9% year-over-year, the biggest gain in the month. The average price of newly listed homes was $357,200, up 3.9% year over year, the largest increase in two months.
The monthly mortgage payment for the house is priced at $2,262 at 6.15% of the current mortgage. That’s unchanged from the week before and down $245 from the October high. Monthly mortgage payments are up 30% from last year.
Pending home sales fell 29.1% year over year. This is the first drop of 30% in three months.
Among the 50 largest US metros, pending sales fell in Las Vegas (-63% YoY); Phoenix (-56.3%); Austin (-53.7%); Nashville (-52.9%); and Jacksonville, Fla. (-52.4%). Although they fell in all 50, they fell in Chicago (-12.8%), Pittsburgh (-20.1%), San Francisco (-23.2%), Boston (-24.4%) and Cleveland ( -25%).
New home listings for sale fell 20% year over year. Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any time during the period) were up 21.8% from a year earlier, the fourth largest increase annually since at least 2015. Months of supply – a measure of the balance between supply and demand, calculated. by dividing the number of active listings by closed sales – 4 months, from 3.7 months in the first week and 2 months in the previous year.
Of the houses that were under contract, 29% accepted the offer within the first two weeks on the market, slightly increased from the previous week but down from 36% a year earlier. The homes that sold were on the market for an average of 45 days. That’s up two weeks from 31 days a year earlier and a record low of 18 days set in May.
Twenty-one percent of homes sold above their final list price, down from 40% a year earlier and the lowest since March 2020. On average, 4.3% of homes for sale each week fell in price, down slightly from the week before. but down from 5.3% in the previous month.
The price-to-list index, which measures how close homes are sold to their final price, fell 97.9% from 100.1% a year ago. it was earlier. That is the lowest level since March 2020.
Read the full report here.