Sales of existing homes greatly declined in January despite mortgage rates coming down, a report from the National Association of Realtors says. File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI | License Photo
Sales of existing homes greatly declined in January despite mortgage rates coming down, a report from the National Association of Realtors released Thursday says.
Existing home sales, sales of homes that were previously owned and occupied, fell 8.4% in January on a seasonally adjusted annual rate. Sales were 4.4% lower than January 2025.
The median sales price of existing homes was $396,800 for all housing types, nearly a 1% increase over a year ago.
“The decrease in sales is disappointing,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Realtors Association, said in a statement. “Affordability conditions are improving, with NAR’s Housing Affordability Index showing that housing is the most affordable it’s been since March 2022. This is due to wage gains outpacing home price growth and mortgage rates being lower than a year ago.”
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.10%, edging down from 6.19% in December, Freddie Mac reports. In January 2025 it was 6.96%.
Yun added that there was a low supply of existing homes, driving median prices to a new high for the month of January. Weather and “above-normal precipitation” were also cited as reasons for a slow month.
There were 1.22 million units of all types for sale, a nearly 1% decline over December. The inventory of unsold homes would take an estimated 3.7 months to sell, slightly higher than the unsold supply in December, based on the pace of sales and no new homes being added.
Housing affordability increased the most in the Western United States, with the Housing Affordability Index increasing 17.1%. The median home price in the West remains the highest at more than $600,000. The index for the Northeastern United States grew the least but was still up 9%.
