The holiday season is bringing unexpected cheer to the housing market, with demand showing resilience despite higher mortgage rates. Typically, elevated rates would lead to a decrease in activity, but a seasonal boost is helping purchase application data and pending contracts grow. Let’s take a closer look at this week’s Tracker data.
Weekly pending sales showed a decline of 4% compared to last year, but year-over-year growth remains positive. With mortgage rates picking up, the expected impact on demand has been minimal. This week’s data reflects a legitimate growth trend, with purchase applications increasing by 4% year over year.
Notably, the current data surpasses traditional seasonal expectations, which typically see a push in housing activity after the second week of January. Historically, November has seen an earlier start to this holiday season-driven demand surge.
Source: https://www.housingwire.com/articles/housing-demand-resilient-despite-higher-mortgage-rates