November is not typically a buzzy month for the housing market, but last month saw several key metrics hit their highest mark of the year.
They can thank the recent slide in mortgage rates. After peaking at 7.79 percent in late October, the average rate at the end of last month was 7.22 percent with declines every week.
New listings and pending home sales answered the cooling rates by jumping to their highest levels in about a year last month, according to a report from Redfin. Prices also rose, recording the highest annual increase since last year.
New listings rose 1.3 percent from October to November, reaching the highest level on a seasonally adjusted basis since October 2022. New listings barely grew on an annual basis, but still notched the first rise in a year and a half.
Total active listings are up 3.9 percent from October, but down 7.9 percent from a year earlier.
The rise of pending home sales, while modest, marked a significant milestone. Pending sales fell slightly on an annual basis but jumped 2 percent from October to the highest level in a year on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Pending home sales jumped the most in Anaheim, up 18.7 percent year-over-year.
The median home price also saw its biggest jump in a year, to $408,732. That represented a 3.7 percent increase year-over-year, but a 1.1 percent decrease from October. Home prices are rising because inventory remains tight, even as listings started to creep upwards.
Prices rose significantly in Anaheim (17.7 percent year-over-year) and Fort Lauderdale (13.5 percent). The median price dropped the most in Austin (8.8 percent), followed by San Antonio (6.2 percent).
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Buyers are “learning to live with uncertainty” specifically the volatility of mortgage rates.
Not everyone is thrilled with such uncertainty, though. Nearly 45,000 home purchase contracts were canceled in November, approximately 16.9 percent of the homes that went under contract last month (the volume of canceled contracts could include deals that were made before November). That’s the highest share Redfin has recorded since 2017.
The Federal Reserve this week signaled possible interest rate cuts coming next year, which means mortgage rates could cool further — but their correlation isn’t guaranteed.