December 20, 2023
Mortgage rates came down just a tish in November and that was enough to sell more homes and snap a five month slump. But home prices are also up.
But for those lucky enough to get in – they were definitely paying more for those homes …a lot more…that’s according to the November existing home sales report from the National Association of Realtors. I’m going to tell you all about the prices in a second but first…– let’s be clear these are average and median numbers for existing homes including single family, townhomes, condos and co-ops all across the country in the month of November.
I’ve been telling you for several months the housing market has been problematic — buyers weren’t buying and sellers weren’t selling, inventory was low, sales were low and prices for existing homes were high. Well after five months one of those factors turned around. And it’s home sales.
In the month of November completed transactions of existing homes increased by 0.8% from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.82 million in November. That’s the first time we’ve seen an increase in home sales in five months but the November number is still down 7.3% from November of last year.
Now – I get that 0.8% is not a lot but when mortgage rates for a 30 year fixed in November were hovering between 7.76% and 7.22% an increase in sales is significant. People are coming off the sidelines and realizing these mortgage rates probably won’t be going back to pandemic levels any time soon.
But not only are buyers spending more on their mortgages, they’re also spending more on the actual price of the existing home.
According to today’s report, median existing single family home prices increased across the entire country by 3.5% over November of 2022 to $392,100. Believe it or not — condos are almost as expensive — the median existing condo prices shot up 8.6% over November of 2022 to $350,100.
Of course – the price you pay depends on where you live – but no matter which way you cut it – home prices are much more expensive this year than they were last year.
Existing homes in the west are by far the most expensive. The median price for an existing home in November 2023 was $603,200 that’s up 5.3% from November of last year.
The second most expensive existing homes were in the northeast where the media existing home price was $428,600 up 4.8% from last year.
The third most expensive existing homes were in the south where the median existing home price was almost $351,500 – up 3.4% from last year.
And the least expensive existing homes were in the Midwest where the median existing home price was $280,800 up 4.8% from last year.
Read the report from the National Association of Realtors here.
