When Christmas lights go up, home sales typically go down as buyers and sellers take a break.
January’s sales tally was down 42.8% from January 2022, when homes were selling twice as fast. Sales have dropped from year-ago levels for 14 consecutive months. A year ago, prices were up almost 13%, and most sellers were getting more than they were asking. Now, most homes are selling below their asking price and averaging more than eight weeks on the market, Redfin numbers show.Even though home prices are lower, the monthly mortgage payment increased 38% over the past year thanks to higher interest rates.
“Demand diminishes due to affordability constraints, and any sellers opt to hunker down as they enjoy their underlying, locked-in, low fixed-rate mortgages,” he said. “Yeah, those numbers are scary,” added Dane McClain, a Newport Beach escrow company vice president. “I have seen slow January’s before, but never, never to this actual loss of where we’re at right now.”
Reports On Housing figures show the number of pending sales contracts signed by the middle of February were down 41% from a year ago.