{"id":75709,"date":"2023-01-25T10:59:27","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T18:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/?p=75709"},"modified":"2023-01-25T11:07:22","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T19:07:22","slug":"housing-market-tracker-december-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/housing-market-tracker-december-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Pending Home Sales Rise for First Time in 14 Months"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pending sales increased 3% in December from the month before, the first monthly gain since October 2021. But sellers remained on the sidelines, with new listings posting their biggest annual drop since the start of the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Seasonally adjusted pending home sales rose 2.9% nationwide in December, the first month-over-month increase since October 2021. Pending sales continued falling year over year, but the decline eased for the first time in 10 months\u2014to 30.9% from a record 35.1% drop in November.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Closed home sales fell 33% from a year earlier, but that drop also eased from a record 35% decline in November. Still, far fewer homes are selling now than a year ago during the pandemic homebuying frenzy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe small uptick in pending sales suggests some homebuyers returned<\/a> to the market at the tail end of 2022 after demand plummeted in the fall,\u201d said Redfin Economics Research Lead Chen Zhao. \u201cThat\u2019s mostly because slowing inflation has driven mortgage rates down to about <\/span>6%<\/span><\/a> from a peak of over 7%, giving buyers some relief and sending the typical buyer\u2019s payment down nearly $200.\u00a0 Along with the dollar decline in monthly payments, rates traveling down instead of up are helping some sidelined buyers get back into a house-hunting mindset.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some Redfin agents in certain areas have noticed homebuyer activity pick up since it stagnated in the fall. In Los Angeles<\/a>, for instance, local agent Lindsay Katz<\/a> has seen small bidding wars on fairly priced, move-in ready homes in desirable neighborhoods over the last few weeks, with the stabilization of mortgage rates giving buyers more confidence. But she said the lack of new listings means prospective buyers don\u2019t have many options.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

New listings fell 26.8% year over year in December, the most since the onset of the pandemic, with many homeowners keen to <\/span>hold onto<\/span><\/a> their low mortgage rates and\/or reluctant to sell in a still-slow market. T<\/span>he typical home that sold was on the market for 44 days\u2014nearly twice as long as a year earlier. <\/span>Data from early January, however, <\/span>suggests<\/span><\/a> that some homeowners are noticing the uptick in buyer interest and warming up to listing their home for sale.<\/span><\/p>\n

December Highlights<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nDecember 2022<\/b><\/td>\nMonth-Over-Month Change<\/b><\/td>\nYear-Over-Year Change<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Median sale price<\/span><\/td>\n$388,100<\/span><\/td>\n-1.4%<\/span><\/td>\n1.2%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pending home sales, seasonally adjusted<\/span><\/td>\n405,007<\/span><\/td>\n2.9%<\/span><\/td>\n-30.9%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Homes sold, seasonally adjusted<\/span><\/td>\n402,908<\/span><\/td>\n-4.4%<\/span><\/td>\n-33.3%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
New listings, seasonally adjusted<\/span><\/td>\n474,257<\/span><\/td>\n-3.1%<\/span><\/td>\n-26.8%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
All homes for sale, seasonally adjusted<\/span><\/td>\n1,590,854<\/span><\/td>\n1.6%<\/span><\/td>\n11.9%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Months of supply<\/span><\/td>\n2.3<\/span><\/td>\n-0.4<\/span><\/td>\n1.3<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Median days on market<\/span><\/td>\n44<\/span><\/td>\n6<\/span><\/td>\n19<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Share of for-sale homes with a price drop<\/span><\/td>\n14.6%<\/span><\/td>\n-5.7 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n7.2 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Share of homes sold above final list price<\/span><\/td>\n23%<\/span><\/td>\n-3.4 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n-19.9 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Average sale-to-final-list-price ratio<\/span><\/td>\n98.1%<\/span><\/td>\n-0.4 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n-2.4 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Share of home offers written by Redfin agents that faced competition, seasonally adjusted<\/span><\/td>\n42%<\/span><\/td>\n-1.1 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n-25.7 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pending sales that fell out of contract, as % of overall pending sales<\/span><\/td>\n16.5%<\/span><\/td>\n0.2 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n3.6 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Average 30-year fixed mortgage rate<\/span><\/td>\n6.36%<\/span><\/td>\n-0.45 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n3.26 ppts<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Note: Data is subject to revision<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Metro-Level Highlights: December 2022<\/span><\/h3>\n

Data in the bullets below came from a list of the 90 U.S. metro areas with populations of at least 750,000, unless otherwise noted. <\/span><\/i>To find the full metro-level and national datasets, head to the monthly section of the Redfin <\/span><\/i>Data Center<\/span><\/i><\/a>. <\/span><\/i>Refer to our <\/span><\/i>metrics definition page<\/span><\/i><\/a> for explanations of metrics used in this report. Metro-level data is not seasonally adjusted, unless otherwise noted.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n