2nd Look at Local Housing Markets in December

Early reports suggest NAR reported sales could be lowest since 2010

This is the second look at local markets in December. I’m tracking about 40 local housing markets in the US. Some of the 40 markets are states, and some are metropolitan areas. I’ll update these tables throughout the month as additional data is released.

Closed sales in December were mostly for contracts signed in October and November. Since 30-year fixed mortgage rates were over 7% for most of October (no points) and averaged 6.8% in November (Freddie PMMS with points) closed sales were probably impacted significantly in December.

In the Northwest, median sales prices were down slightly year-over-year. From the Northwest MLS: For Northwest MLS brokers, December ends with a “whimper,” and 2022 was “a tale of two housing markets”

The median sales price was $570,000, down $2,900 (-0.51%) from the year-ago figure of $572,900. Last year’s median price overall peaked in May 2022, at $660,000.

In Charlotte, the median sales price was $373,625, up 6.8% year-over-year.

Active Inventory in December

Here is a summary of active listings for these housing markets in December.

Inventory in these markets were down 39% YoY in January 2022 and are now up 129% YoY! So, this is a significant change from early in 2022, and about the same YoY inventory increase as in November (up 121% YoY).

Notes for all tables:

1. New additions to table in BOLD.

2. Northwest (Seattle)

   

New Listings in December

And here is a table for new listings in December. For these areas, new listings were down 33.4% YoY. Potential sellers that are locked into their current homes with low mortgage rates has pushed down new listings.

Last month, new listings in these markets were down 26.6% YoY.

Closed Sales in December

And a table of December sales.

In December, sales were down 43.5%. In November, these same markets were down 43.7% YoY Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA).

Note that in December 2022, there were the same number of selling days as in December 2021, so the SA decline will be similar to the NSA decline.

This is a similar YoY decline as in November for these early reporting markets. If national sales decline by the same percent as last month, the NAR will report sales for December under 4.0 million SAAR - below the 4.01 million in May 2020 (pandemic low) and the lowest sales rate since 2010.

Many more local markets to come!