November was the fourth consecutive month that pending home sales increased, this time by 2.2%.
This comes after a 24-month period during which the mortgage rates averaged above 6% and last month's median home price was $406,100, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“Consumers appeared to have recalibrated expectations regarding mortgage rates and are taking advantage of more available inventory,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. “Buyers are no longer waiting for or expecting mortgage rates to fall substantially. Furthermore, buyers are in a better position to negotiate as the market shifts away from a seller’s market.”
The NAR reported that the index for these pending home sales was 79 out of 100, the highest since February 2023. A 100 index is equal to the average sales during 2001, the first year the NAR reported national sales. At the time, the volume of existing home sales in 2001 fell within the range of 5.0 to 5.5 million, which the firm considers normal for the United States.
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The Northeast region performed the worst, with a 1.3% decrease in its monthly pending home sales index. Meanwhile, the South had the best November with a 5.2% index increase, and the West performed the best over the past year with an 11.8% increase since last November.
Among the NAR's top 10 housing markets, four of the cities were in the South region. They included Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, North Carolina-South Carolina; Greenville-Anderson, South Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; and San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas.