Tag Archives: Danielle Hale

"The small gain in contract signings shows the potential for further increases in light of the fact that many people have lost out on multiple home buying offers," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.

Hitting levels last recorded in 2001, Freddie Mac reports the fixed-rate mortgage at 7.23% this week, forcing more prospective buyers to back to the sidelines and pushing purchase activity to a 28-year-low.

Active housing inventory was reportedly 49.2% below typical pre-pandemic July levels, as Realtor.com reports that on a typical day in July, there were 45,000 fewer homes available to buy year-over-year.

Led by an increase in sales in the Northeast and Midwest, NAR found that pending home sales nationwide rose slightly month-over-month in June, with the market continuing to struggle with a lack of housing supply.

At the conclusion of Fed’s two-day July meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee moved to raise the base interest rate by 25 basis points, with all members voting in favor of the action.

"High inflation and the Fed's actions to curb it have had a significant impact on the housing market this year. And while inflation has begun to ease, the sustained spike in mortgage rates was enough to stifle the housing market after several years of low rates and strong activity," said Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale.

Based on the current rate of sales, May’s inventory of unsold existing homes grew 3.8% from April to just over 1 million units, equivalent to three months of supply.

"Middle-income buyers face the largest shortage of homes among all income groups, making it even harder for them to build wealth through homeownership," said Nadia Evangelou, NAR Senior Economist and Director of Real Estate Research.

“Weakening home price growth for the past 12 months is increasing the odds that we may not see a new home price peak this year, for the first time in the history of our listing data, which dates back to mid-2016, and this is likely welcome news to homeshoppers," said Danielle Hale, Chief Economist for Realtor.com.

“Although buyers, sellers, and builders are all more optimistic about the housing market, asking home price growth is easing and the typical home sales price is slipping. These point to the nudge that buyers need to act on their improving outlook,” said Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale.