By Manuel Gutierrez, Consulting Economist to NKBA
Blame rising mortgage rates for the drooping housing market, which saw sales of existing homes skid another 6 percent in October to an annual rate of 4.43 million units. Except for a brief collapse in the pandemic shutdown, this is the lowest sales pace in a decade.
- Existing home sales have fallen for nine straight months since January, when they were tracking at an annual rate of 6.5 million units sold — 2 million more than in October.
- Sales were 28 percent lower in October than they were in October 2021, when they were running at a rate of 6.2 million sales annually.
- Sales fell in all four U.S. regions, with the biggest drop in the West.
- Inventory of homes for sale dipped to 1.22 million houses available, for a 3.3-month supply at the current sales pace.
- The median selling price of an existing home hit $379,000, down from September’s $384,000 mark but up 6.6 percent from October 2021. That’s the lowest annual increase over the last three years. In 2020 and 2021, house prices were rising around 15 percent over the prior year.
- Softer sales and easing prices indicate that demand is stabilizing from the frenetic pace induced by the pandemic.
