October showed some promising signs for the housing market, as existing-home sales rose 1.6% from the previous month to reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.18 million. While slight, this gain is the highest monthly increase since January 2022, National Mortgage Professional reports, citing data from real estate marketing platform Redfin. Year-over-year existing-home sales increased by 1.7%, marking the first annual gain since November 2021. Total home sales, including both new and existing homes, also grew by 1.6% month-over-month and 3.4% year-over-year.
Despite these upward trends, the housing market still faces a number of sales challenges, with many buyers continuing to hold off selling homes with historically low mortgage interest rates while prices for homes on the market continue to rise or remain high.
The average home took 41 days to sell in October, the longest October duration since 2019. Just 35% of homes went under contract within two weeks, down from 40.4% a year earlier.
Sellers face increasing scrutiny from price-savvy buyers. Many homes remain unsold due to overpricing, leading to a buildup of stale listings. Active listings hit their highest seasonally adjusted level in four years last month. Read more