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Mortgage rates and home prices favoring buyers?
Dec 10, 2022
Mortgage rates and home prices favoring buyers? Atlanta
By   Internet
  • City News
  • Home Prices
  • Housing Market
  • Real Estate Trends
Abstract: Lower mortgage rates, which have been falling for the past four weeks.

According to the data, home price growth slowed significantly for the week ending Dec. 3.

 

Mortgage rates have more than doubled in the past year and reached a 20-year high of 7.08% for 30-year fixed-rate loans in late October.

 

Since then, however, rates have been falling freely over the past month, reaching 6.33% for the week ending Dec. 8, down from 6.49% the week before, according to Freddie Mac data.

 

Even this single week decline has resulted in significant savings for the typical home, saving $185 per month.

 

However, with the change in interest rates, homebuyers may have little time to waste.

 

In November, the median price of a home hovered at $416,000. Yes, that's high, but nowhere near the all-time high of $449,000 in June.

 

Moreover, while the cost of a home has increased by double digits year-over-year for the past 49 weeks in a row, the good news for homebuyers is that this increase is steadily decreasing.

 

For the week ending Dec. 3, the median listing price was up 10.3 percent compared to the same week last year. So prices are still higher than they were a year ago, but that's a sharp drop from the previous week's 12.2% growth rate.

 

And if the slowdown continues, home price growth could return to single-digit territory by the end of the year, giving buyers more buying power.

 

While homebuyers may be excited about all this sudden good news on the mortgage and home price front, the downside is that they will have fewer new listings to shop for.

 

For 22 consecutive weeks, the number of new home sellers willing to list their homes has been declining, and for the week ending Dec. 3, it was down 8 percent compared to the same week last year.

 

The silver lining, however, is that this is the smallest decline since July.

 

Overall, the total number of homes for sale - both new and older - is up an eye-popping 53 percent compared to a year ago.

 

The spike in the total number of homes for sale is largely the result of homes spending more time on the market.

 

In the week ending Dec. 3, homebuyers had nine more days to browse listings than a year earlier.

 

While lower mortgage rates, shrinking home price growth and more properties to choose from are all excellent news for homebuyers, there are still many challenges and unknowns in 2023.

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Mortgage rates and home prices favoring buyers?
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