For the week ending Aug. 3, the average 30-year, fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.9%, up from the previous week’s 6.81%, and for the week ending July 29, median home listing prices also rose on a year-over-year basis. An ongoing affordability crisis is stalling a growing share of budget-conscious homebuyers, but not all are demonstrating such patience.
Home sales are on track to post their lowest annual total in more than a decade in 2023, but according to Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com, competition may actually be heating up in the for-sale market.
Skimpy listings at steep prices have also slowed the pace at which homebuyers are snapping them up: For the week ending July 29, homes spent eight more days on the market compared with this same week last year. Median days on the market has been increasing for 54 weeks straight.
Yet despite all this, Hale points out that many homebuyers are extraordinarily undeterred. The data suggests “home shoppers are looking.”
The upshot is that this more languorous pace of sales (which, by the way, is still shorter than before COVID-19) might not last for much longer.
“As we lap the 2022 housing slowdown period, this gap is likely to continue to shrink, and by fall we could even see homes selling faster than one year ago,” notes Hale. “If this happens, it could indicate that the market is finding a new normal, where homes sit on the market for fewer days than pre-pandemic, but longer than was common during the height of the real estate frenzy.”
Advertisement
Related Stories
Market Data + Trends
Vacation and Investment Home Market Insights
A recent report finds that beach homes are the most sought-after vacation-home type, and the investment potential of a second home is an important factor in homebuyers' purchasing decisions
Affordability
How Much Income Do First-Time Buyers Need to Afford the Average Home?
The median-priced home is unaffordable in 44 of the 50 largest U.S. metro areas
Affordability
What Is the Relationship Between Urban vs. Suburban Development and Affordability?
A new paper from Harvard's Joint Center looks at whether expanding the supply of suburban housing could, in turn, help make dense urban areas more affordable