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Last updated on February 21st, 2022 at 08:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales in the past occupied homes fell in December for the first time in four months as many would-be buyers were upset by a lack of available houses, which dropped down to the lowest level in more than two decades.
Sales of the existing homes went down 4.6% last month from November, to a seasonally attuned annual rate of nearly 6.2 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
Home demands remain healthy, the group said, with median prices rising nearly 16% from a year ago to $358,000.
Homes sold in an average of 19 days, vaguely higher than in the summer but still quite rapid.
Yet the number of houses for sale dropped to just 910,000 in December, the lowest since records began in 1999.
Kwame Donaldson, senior economist for real estate website Zillow said “It’s very tough for sales to significantly grow when there’s just not that much accessible to buy.
Existing home sales drop back to earth in December after surprisingly strong autumn. … This reversal can be traced to a dramatic decline in options for buyers.”
The inventory of homes for sale dropped 40% from pre-pandemic levels, Donaldson said.
Even with the December decrease, it has been a healthy year for home sales.
Annual sales achieved 6.1 million in 2021, the National Association of Realtors said, up 8.5% from 2020 and the most since 2006, the height of the housing bubble that crashed the subsequent year.
Sales soared after pandemic lockdowns got over and many Americans wanted more space for indoor offices and online schooling.
Strong job and income gains also fueled Healthy home-buying.
The surge in new omicron infections may have disheartened some people from putting their homes on the market and opening them to wide traffic, Donaldson said, driving inventory lower.
With the Federal Reserve set to raise interest rates as soon as March, home sales are predicted to decline this year, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors.
Mortgage rates started to grow sharply in late December after last month’s sales were mostly finished.
The expectation of higher borrowing costs likely drove home purchases higher in the fall. The average rate reached nearly 3.6% on a 30-year fixed mortgage this week, the highest since March 2020 and up from 3.05% a month ago
Reference Source: KCTV 5
