U.S. Pending Home Sales Hit Highest Level in Nearly a Year in November - Mansion Global

With elevated interest rates expected to become the new normal, U.S. home buyers and sellers are taking action in the market again, resulting in the biggest rise in both new listings and pending home sales in about a year, according to Redfin.  

In November, new listings registered a 1.3% month-over-month uptick, reaching their highest level since October 2022, according to a Friday report from Redfin. New listings also ticked up 0.1% annually, “a small gain, but the first in a year and a half,” the report said. 

The supply of homes for sale rose 3.9% month over month—the biggest increase since July 2022, the figures showed. Still, active inventory decreased 7.9% annually. 

Meanwhile, pending home sales rose 2% in November compared to the previous month, climbing to the highest level in almost a year on a seasonally adjusted basis, Redfin reported. The number of pending deals was roughly flat from a year earlier.

“Buyers and sellers are learning to live with uncertainty,” Shay Stein, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Las Vegas, said in the report. “They’re making moves now because they can only wait so long to be near their grandkids, live in an RV like they’ve always dreamt of or finalize their divorce.”

It’s unlikely the U.S. will see rates dip below 5% in the immediate future, but the Fed decided not to raise rates at its policy meeting earlier this week for the third consecutive time, and there are three cuts tentatively planned for next year. The rate could drop to 4.6% by the end of 2024, officials said at the meeting.

Another factor pushing pending sales and listings up is the realization that “buyers and sellers are finally living in the same reality,” Stein said. 

“A year ago, sellers had trouble understanding why they weren’t getting $20,000 over the list price like their neighbor did during the pandemic homebuying boom,” she said. “Now, they understand that to sell their home, they need to price it fairly and in some cases offer the buyer concessions like money toward closing costs or mortgage-rate buydowns.”

Still, limited supply is keeping prices high: Prices were up 3.7% annually to $408,732 last month, the biggest year-over-year increase since late 2022.

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U.S. Pending Home Sales Hit Highest Level in Nearly a Year in November - Mansion Global
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