US weekly real estate update
The U.S. housing market continues its slowdown as the end of July approaches.
Home builder sentiment is falling, mortgage rates are up slightly and hot pandemic-era housing markets such as Boise and Phoenix are seeing home values come down.
To help you stay current on the market, ZeroDown compiled a weekly real estate market report using data from Redfin. Statistics are as of the four weeks ending July 17, 2022. Metros with more than 50 homes sold during this time period were considered for metro-level rankings for each statistic.
Not including the market shocks experienced immediately following the emergence of Covid-19 in the U.S. the latest drop in sentiment was unmatched in recent history. That's according to the latest survey from the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo.
Builder sentiment about the state of the housing market has been declining since the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates earlier this summer. A 30-year fixed rate mortgage hovered around 5.5%, up 2.6 percentage points from the same time a year ago, according to Freddie Mac.
Increasing mortgage rates are helping drive the cooldown in markets like affordable housing-scarce California, where more inventory is now coming online month after month.
Single family home sales in the Golden State continue to "moderate", falling nearly 21% year over year in June. That's according to the California Association of Realtors. Home prices fell 4% from May, but remain more than 5% above levels seen over the same period in 2021.
