The U.S. housing market showed a sign of early recovery, as pending home sales of rose for the first time in 14 months.
Pending home sales rose 2.9 percent in December, the first month-over-month increase since October 2021, according to data from Redfin on Jan. 25.
The decline in pending sales also eased for the first time in 10 months, to 30.9 percent from a record 35.1 percent drop in November.
“The small uptick in pending sales suggests some homebuyers returned to the market at the tail end of 2022 after demand plummeted in the fall,” said Chen Zhao, Redfin’s economics research lead.
“That’s mostly because slowing inflation has driven mortgage rates down to about 6 percent from a peak of over 7 percent, giving buyers some relief and sending the typical buyer’s payment down nearly $200. Along with the dollar decline in monthly payments, rates traveling down instead of up are helping some sidelined buyers get back into a house-hunting mindset.”…