Pending home sales slipped in November to their lowest level in nearly a year, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), with only the Northeast seeing sales gains in this period.<\/p>\n
NAR points to “the brisk upswing in mortgage rates” and ongoing low inventory levels as the reason why some would-be buyers are “dispirited.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Pending Home Sales Index (contract signings) declined 2.5 percent from October, and is now 0.4 percent below November 2015, the lowest reading since January.<\/p>\n
Rates spiked post-election<\/h2>\n
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist said, \u201cThe budget of many prospective buyers last month was dealt an abrupt hit by the quick ascension of rates immediately after the election.\u201d It was good news for the stock market, but discouraged some buyers for the month.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlready faced with climbing home prices and minimal listings in the affordable price range, fewer home shoppers in most of the country were successfully able to sign a contract,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Looking forward<\/h2>\n
Yun indicated prices will continue to rise as supply remains tight. \u201cSome buyers will have to expand the area of their home search or be forced to delay in order to save a little more money for their down payment.\u201d<\/p>\n
NAR expects existing home sales to close out the year at a pace of around 5.42 million, dramatically higher than 2015’s pace of 5.25 million. This year marks the highest since 2006 (6.48 million).<\/p>\n
In 2017, sales are forecast to grow roughly 2 percent and the national median existing-home price is expected to increase to around 5 percent this year and 4 percent in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch more robust new home construction is needed to relieve inventory shortages and lessen the affordability pressures present throughout the country,\u201d added Yun, repeating his warnings from throughout this year and last.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Northeast region performed best<\/h2>\n
Pending home sales in the Northeast rose 0.6 percent, up 5.7 percent above a year ago. In the Midwest, sales fell 2.5 percent which is 2.4 percent lower than November 2015.<\/p>\n
The South saw a 1.2 percent decrease, but is 1.3 percent lower than last November. Pending home sales in the West fell 6.7 percent, and is now 1.0 percent below a year ago.<\/p>\n
#PendingHomeSales<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(REAL ESTATE NEWS) Pending home sales (contract signings) slipped in November, but what has consumers discouraged right now?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335938,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[300,91],"tags":[263,1234,452],"class_list":["post-10205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nar-reports","category-big-data","tag-nar","tag-real-estate-news","tag-real-estate-sales"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335938"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10208,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10205\/revisions\/10208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}