{"id":4725,"date":"2024-03-01T13:10:23","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T13:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/01\/the-housing-markets-unhappy-new-year-fewer-homes-go-under-contract-as-mortgage-rates-rise\/"},"modified":"2024-03-01T13:10:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T13:10:23","slug":"the-housing-markets-unhappy-new-year-fewer-homes-go-under-contract-as-mortgage-rates-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/01\/the-housing-markets-unhappy-new-year-fewer-homes-go-under-contract-as-mortgage-rates-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"The Housing Market\u2019s Unhappy New Year: Fewer Homes Go Under Contract as Mortgage Rates Rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The housing market isn\u2019t off to a good start this year.<\/p>\n

The number of homes under contract that haven\u2019t closed yet dropped 4.9% from December to January, according to a recent report<\/a> from the National Association of Realtors\u00ae. Year-over-year pending home sales were down 8.8% in January.<\/p>\n

The culprit? Rising mortgage rates<\/a> that make it more expensive for folks to purchase homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers are showing extra sensitivity to changes in mortgage rates in the current cycle, and that\u2019s impacting home sales,\u201d said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun<\/strong>\u00a0in a statement.<\/p>\n

Mortgage rates had dropped<\/a> to a low of 6.61% in late December but ticked up slightly in January, according to Freddie Mac data.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuyer demand is closely tied to mortgage rates, as lower rates are an avenue to affordability in today\u2019s market,\u201d says Realtor.com\u00ae senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones<\/strong>. \u201cThe recent uptick in rates could mean slower seasonally adjusted sales as the spring homebuying season kicks off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higher rates also make sellers less likely to want to list their homes. As some sellers are also buyers, many are reluctant to trade their low rates for higher ones. That\u2019s making the housing shortage even worse, as buyers can\u2019t find homes to purchase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

January\u2019s cold temperatures were also to blame, according to Bright MLS chief economist Lisa Sturtevant<\/strong>. She covers the mid-Atlantic region.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome buyers might have been avoiding the snow and cold weather in January, while holding out hope for lower rates later this winter and spring,\u201d Sturtevant said in a statement. \u201cHomebuyers may find not only lower mortgage rates but also more inventory, if they wait until spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where the number of homes under contract rose and fell<\/h2>\n

The number of homes going under contract ticked up a little in the Northeast and West, despite the higher rates and snowier weather. But sales dropped off in the Midwest and South, according to NAR.<\/p>\n

In the Northeast, pending sales rose 0.8% from December to January. However, they were down 5.5% year-over-year. They also rose 0.5% in the West, but were down 7% from a year earlier.<\/p>\n

The Midwest saw the largest declines. The number of pending sales dropped 7.6% in January from December and fell 11.6%, compared to the same month a year earlier.<\/p>\n

In the South, pending sales decreased 7.3% in January from December and came down 9% year over year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouthern states and those in the Rocky Mountain time zone experienced faster job growth compared to the rest of the country,\u201d NAR\u2019s Yun said in a statement. \u201cAs a result, long-term housing demand is increasing more significantly in these regions. However, the timing and number of purchases will largely depend on the prevailing mortgage rates and inventory availability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post The Housing Market\u2019s Unhappy New Year: Fewer Homes Go Under Contract as Mortgage Rates Rise<\/a> appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com\u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getty Images The housing market isn\u2019t off to a good start this year. The number of homes under contract that haven\u2019t closed yet dropped 4.9% from December to January, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors\u00ae. Year-over-year pending home sales were down 8.8% in January. The culprit? Rising mortgage rates that…Read More→<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}