ShareNPR - All Things Considered
The final figures for home sales last year are in, and the story is quite grim: 2024 was the slowest year for existing home sales in nearly three decades.
Existing-home sales last year totaled 4.06 million, the lowest on an annual basis since 1995, according to the National Association of REALTORS® on Friday.
A big factor behind the slowdown was elevated mortgage rates, which spent most of the year above 6.5%.
Meanwhile, prices on homes that did sell have been very high, as more sales at the high end of the market nudged median prices higher. The median home price reached $407,500 in 2024, a record high.
But there are some signs of loosening: existing home sales in December were 9.3% higher than a year earlier.
"Home sales in the final months of the year showed solid recovery despite elevated mortgage rates," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun in a statement. "Home sales during the winter are typically softer than the spring and summer, but momentum is rising with sales climbing year-over-year for three straight months ... Job and wage gains, along with increased inventory, are positively impacting the market."