Existing home sales fall for 10th month

FILE - A "For Sale" sign stands in front of a house in Rochester, New York, on Monday, January 17, 2022. On Wednesday the National Association of Realtors reports on sales of existing homes in November. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
FILE - A "For Sale" sign stands in front of a house in Rochester, New York, on Monday, January 17, 2022. On Wednesday the National Association of Realtors reports on sales of existing homes in November. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed for the 10th consecutive month in November, constrained by a tight inventory of properties and a doubling of mortgage rates.

Existing home sales fell 7.7% last month from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. That's a slower sales pace than what economists had expected, according to FactSet. The contraction also marks the longest streak of monthly sales declines since 1999.

Sales plunged 35.4% from November 2021. Excluding the steep slowdown in sales that occurred in May 2020, sales are now at the slowest annual pace since November 2010, when the housing market was mired in a deep slump after the foreclosure crisis of the late 2000s.

Despite the slowdown, home prices continued to rise last month but at a far smaller rate. The national median sale price rose 3.5% in November from a year earlier, to $370,700.

November's housing snapshot is the latest evidence of a deepening slowdown from the start of 2022, when mortgage rates were still near historic lows. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage was slightly above 3% in early January. Last week, it was at 6.31%, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac.

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