Recovery in the US second-hand housing market was weak, and existing home sales increased slightly month-on-month in November and still fell 1% year on year

Under multiple pressures of high housing prices, long-term high mortgage interest rates, and tightening housing supply, potential buyers in the US are facing a more severe home buying environment, and the second-hand housing market's recovery momentum is still limited.

The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to data released by the National Association of Real Estate Agents (NAR) on Friday, sales of existing homes in the US increased by only 0.5% month-on-month in November, but still fell 1% year over year. The seasonally adjusted annualized sales volume was 4.13 million units. Since existing home sales are based on transactions, the above data mainly reflects the purchase contracts signed in September and October of this year. Mortgage interest rates fell slightly at that time, but then remained high within a relatively narrow range.

On the supply side, the number of listings, which continued to improve for most of this year, declined in November. According to the data, the number of properties for sale as of the end of November was 1.43 million, down 5.9% from the previous month, but it was still up 7.5% year on year. Based on the current sales rate, the corresponding supply cycle for inventory is about 4.2 months, which is significantly lower than 6 months, which is regarded as the equilibrium level of supply and demand.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, said that housing growth is beginning to stagnate. “Homeowners aren't in a hurry to list and sell their homes in the winter.”

At the same time, a higher percentage of homes listed for sale have also been withdrawn. Although sellers usually take unsold properties out of the market after entering winter, the trend is clearly stronger this year.

The decline in housing stock continues to support housing prices. According to the data, the median price of existing home sales in November was US$4092 million, up 1.2% year on year, and hit a record high in November. However, since the median index is easily affected by the transaction structure, the current market is clearly divided: sales of low-cost housing continue to be under pressure, and the high-end market is relatively strong. Among them, house sales in the range of 100,000 to 250,000 US dollars fell by nearly 8% year on year, while sales of homes with a price of more than 1 million US dollars increased 1.4% year over year.

Yun pointed out that wages are currently growing faster than housing prices, which will help improve housing affordability, but he also warned that if housing supply fails to keep up with growing demand, housing affordability may still face new pressure in the future.

The average listing time for homes on the market has been extended to 36 days, up from 32 days in the same period last year. First-time buyers accounted for 30% of transactions, the same as last year, but still significantly lower than the historical average of about 40%. Meanwhile, investors returned to the market, and their share of transactions rose to 18%, up from 13% in the same period last year.