Typical Buyer’s Monthly Payment Up Nearly 40%
Redfin, Seattle, reported the typical homebuyer’s monthly mortgage payment shot up 39%, the largest year-over-year gain on record, as the average 30-year-fixed rate hovered at 5.1%.
“Rising mortgage rates are taking a bite out of pending sales as both buyers and sellers take a step back from the turbulent market,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “It seems as though the ratio of buyers to sellers remains mostly the same, which is why we have yet to see a substantial drop in bidding wars or the share of homes selling quickly.”
Fairweather noted 5% mortgage rates remain in their early days. “The number of buyers willing to pay such high mortgage payments could evaporate by late summer,” she said.
Pending home sales posted their largest year-over-year decrease since mid-February and mortgage purchase applications fell 17%, Redfin reported in its Housing Market Update. On the supply side, new listings fell 4% and the share of listings with price drops rose to its highest level since November.
Fewer people searched for “homes for sale” on Google, the report said. Searches during the week ending April 23 fell 6% from a year earlier. The seasonally adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index remained flat year-over-year during the week ending April 24. It dropped 8% in the past four weeks, compared with a 3% decrease during the same period a year earlier.
Home tour technology company ShowingTime reported house touring activity from the first week of January through April 24 was 19 percentage points behind the same period last year.
Other housing market takeaways:
* The median home sale price was up 17% year over year–the biggest increase since August–to a record $395,600.
* The median asking price of newly listed homes increased 16% year over year to $404,950, a record.
* The monthly mortgage payment on the median asking price home rose to a record $2,349 at the current 5.1% mortgage rate. This was up 39% from $1,685 a year earlier, when mortgage rates were 2.98%.
* Pending home sales were down 3% year over year, the largest decrease since mid-February.
* New listings of homes for sale were down 4% from a year earlier and have turned in annual declines since mid-March.
* Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 19% year over year.
