Existing-home sales notched a slight increase in November, newly released figures from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) show.
The annualized pace of existing-home sales rose to 4.13 million units last month, reflecting a 0.5% increase from October but a 1% decline year over year.
Lower mortgage rates that helped improve affordability led to the increased activity over the month, said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, in a statement accompanying the November sales data.
The growth in sales was met by a nearly 6% slump in unsold inventory, however, another sign of home sellers’ reluctance to let their listings languish amid cautious homebuyer demand.
Zillow reported this week that new listings plummeted nearly 30% month over month in November, the largest monthly November decline going back to 2018.
“With distressed property sales at historic lows and housing wealth at an all-time high, homeowners are in no rush to list their properties during the winter months,” Yun remarked.
Condominiums and co-ops posted a 2.6% monthly and annual decline in sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 380,000 units.
Easing mortgage rates and persistent softening in national home prices supported higher levels of home sales activity in November for the third consecutive month.
The Realtor association also reported the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in November was 6.24%, citing Freddie Mac data, essentially flat from 6.25% in October but more than half a percentage point lower than the 6.81% observed a year ago.
However, Yun said that future affordability gains “could be hampered if housing supply fails to keep pace with demand.”
The median existing-home sales price was 1.2% higher than a year ago in November at $409,200, though 1.2% lower than October’s median sales price of $415,200.
Regionally, median October sales prices rose 1.1% year over year in the Northeast and 5.8% in the Midwest, while gaining just 0.8% in the South and declining 0.9% in the West.
The share of home sales made to first-time homebuyers in November declined to 30% from 32% in October, reflecting zero change from a year ago.
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