Los Angeles – Gross sales of beforehand occupied U.S. properties slumped practically 18% in 2022, the slowest yr for the housing market in practically a decade.
The Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors stated Friday that current house gross sales totaled 5.03 million final yr, a 17.8% decline from 2021. That marks the weakest yr for house gross sales since 2014 and the largest annual decline since 2008, following the foreclosures disaster of the late 2000s.
Even so, the median nationwide house value for all of final yr jumped 10.2% to $386,300, the NAR stated.
Mortgage charges greater than doubled in 2022, climbing to a two-decade excessive of seven.08% within the fall because the Federal Reserve continued to spice up its key lending fee in its quest to chill the economic system and tame inflation. House gross sales slowed from a torrid tempo at the beginning of the yr because the surge in borrowing prices restricted house hunters’ shopping for energy.
The typical fee on a 30-year mortgage fee fell this week to six.15%, its lowest degree since September, in line with mortgage purchaser Freddie Mac. Nonetheless, it stays practically double the three.56% common fee a yr in the past.
Present house gross sales fell in December for the eleventh month in a row to a seasonally adjusted annual fee of 4.02 million, the NAR stated. That’s barely higher than what economists have been anticipating, in line with FactSet.
December’s gross sales sank 34% from a yr earlier. Excluding the steep slowdown in gross sales that occurred in Might 2020 close to the beginning of the pandemic, gross sales final month skidded to the slowest annual tempo since November 2010.
Regardless of the slowdown, house costs continued to rise final month. The nationwide median house gross sales value rose 2.3% in December from a yr earlier to $366,900, the NAR stated.