The answer is… interest rates peaked in October. The market has a large sensitivity every time mortgage rates near 5%. At that time, the average rate climbed near 5.25%. We expect next month’s number to suffer too…then an unexpected jump reflecting lower interest rates through the holidays and January.
The unusually large drop in home sales has real estate agents baffled
Real estate brokers are trying to figure out why sales of existing homes plunged in December.
The 6.4 percent monthly move was unusually large, regardless of direction. The tally from the National Association of Realtors generally moves in the very low single digits month to month.
In fact, the shift was one of the largest that didn’t involve some sort of change in government policy, like the homebuyer tax credit.
“The latest decline is harder to explain. Perhaps it is the decline in consumer confidence that’s been occurring in the latter half of 2018,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors. “The latest numbers do not reflect the lower, current mortgage rates compared to the November figures, so it’s really harder to explain.“
