1st Look at Local Housing Markets in December
Last year (2025) might have seen the lowest number of existing home sales since 1995. It will be close! Even if sales beat 2024 sales, these will be the two lowest sales years since 1995. Sales will be worse than any year during the housing bust.
Most readers probably don’t remember 1995, but I do! If I went to an open house ‘95, I was frequently the only person to visit all day. Just me and the crickets.
December sales will be mostly for contracts signed in October and November, and mortgage rates averaged 6.25% in October and 6.24% in November (lower than for closed sales in November).
Closed Sales in December
In December, sales in these early reporting markets were up 2.5% YoY. Last month, in November, these same markets were down 10.8% year-over-year Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA).
Important: There was one more working days in December 2025 (22) as in December 2024 (21). So, the year-over-year change in the headline SA data will be less than the change in NSA data (there are other seasonal factors).
Notes for all tables:
New additions to table in BOLD.
For the previous month, there were one fewer working days in November 2025 (18) as in November 2024 (19). So, the year-over-year change in the headline SA data was more than the change in NSA data (there are other seasonal factors).
Sales in all of these markets are down sharply compared to December 2019.
This graph shows existing home sales by month for 2024 and 2025, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis. Last year, the NAR reported sales in December 2024 were at 4.29 million SAAR.
This early data suggests that December existing sales (as reported seasonally adjusted by the NAR) might be up slightly year-over-year.
New Listings in December
For these areas, new listings were down 9.6% year-over-year.
NOTE: The San Diego new listing data is likely incorrect.
Last month, new listings in these markets were down 3.5% year-over-year.
New listings are still down 28% compared to December 2019 activity for these markets.
Active Inventory in December
Inventory was up 12.7% year-over-year. Last month inventory in these markets was up 19.4% YoY.
NOTE: The San Diego active listing data is likely incorrect.
Comparing to December 2019, inventory is up sharply in most of these areas.
This was just several early reporting markets. Many more local markets to come!