"After rising for seven weeks straight, mortgage rates have finally hit a speed bump, falling to 7.76 % on average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage as of Nov. 2, according to Freddie Mac. This comes on the heels of the Federal Reserve’s announcement on Nov. 1 to not raise benchmark interest rates in its ongoing fight against inflation.
Home prices head higher
The week ending Oct. 28, home prices rose by 1.2%—the highest in 25 weeks—compared with the same time last year.
Sustained prices can be attributed to the persistently low inventory of existing homes for sale.
Demand still continues to outpace the limited supply of homes.
Nationwide, the number of homes for sale shrank by 1% for the week ending Oct. 28 compared with this same week last year. Since mid-2022, new listings have registered lower than prior-year levels, as the mortgage rate lock-in effect freezes homeowners with low-rate existing mortgages in place.
The number of homes for sale is 41.8% below typical pre-COVID-19 levels.
An abrupt reversal in new listings
New listings were up by 5.6% for the week ending Oct. 28 from one year ago. While newly listed homes this past week exceeded the figures from the same week last year, the overall pace of listing activity still severely lags behind the levels seen before the pandemic.
Homebuyers still need to act fast
Buyers who do find a great property in the meager home haystack don’t have much time to linger over a pro and con list.
For the week ending Oct. 28, homes spent one less day on the market compared with last year. (The average time on the market for a typical home was 50 days in October, more than two weeks shorter than before the COVID-19 pandemic.)
The gap in time on the market narrowed over the last few months as buyers competed over fewer homes. This fall, the time a typical home spends on the market is growing much more slowly than is typical for this season.”