After a big surprise jump in October, existing home sales were expected to drop MoM in November (as homebuilder sentiment rolled over from record highs) after 5 straight months higher and sales did slump – more than expected.
Existing Home Sales fell 2.5% MoM (worse than the 2.2% drop expected) and the first MoM drop since May and the YoY surge in sales is starting to slow…
Source: Bloomberg
“Housing affordability, which had greatly benefitted from falling mortgage rates, are now being challenged due to record-high home prices,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement.
“That could place strain on some potential consumers, particularly first-time buyers.”
This pushed the SAAR down to 6.69mm from 6.86mm in October.
Perhaps the slowdown is due to the fact that the median selling price jumped 14.6% from a year earlier on an unadjusted basis to $310,800, the fourth straight month of double-digit increases.
