Pending home sales declined 2.6% in November according to the National Association of Realtors, however compared with the 2019 period, the number of contracts waiting to close was up 16%.
Still the shortage of house inventory in the face of fast-rising selling prices created headwinds for buyers to navigate. The largest decrease occurred in the West where contract signings decreased 4.7%, followed by the Northeast, down 3.3%, then the Midwest, off 3.1%, and the South, down 1.1%.
“The market is incredibly swift this winter with the listed homes going under contract on average at less than a month due to a backlog of buyers wanting to take advantage of record-low mortgage rates,” Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, said in the report.
As has been the case for much of this year, there has been a serious shortage of homes for sale as sellers have remained reluctant to put their properties on the market. But demand is still up — both because of record-low mortgage rates and shifting preferences toward the suburbs.
The combination of low supply and high demand has pushed prices higher, which could be making home buying unaffordable for a growing swath of Americans.
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