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The median mortgage payment was nearly $400 less per month in December than when mortgage rates peaked in October, according to a new report from Redfin.
Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates peaked near 8 percent in October, before recent positive news about inflation and the economy sent them tumbling by more than a full percentage point to end the year.
Inman reported yesterday that the drop in rates hasn’t yet been enough to get homebuyers to jump to action, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. But Redfin said its data shows demand is on the rise.
“Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index — a seasonally adjusted measure of requests for tours and other homebuying services from Redfin agents — is up 10 percent from a month ago,” Redfin reported. That’s the highest level since August.
Still, mortgage purchase applications are 12 percent lower than they were a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Home prices continued climbing through the year and ended up by 4.4 percent compared to a year before. The median sale price rose to $363,371 to end December and sold for 98.4 percent of the listing price, Redfin reported.
The median mortgage payment was $2,361 for the four weeks ending Dec. 31, Redfin reported. That’s 14 percent lower than it was when rates hit a 23-year high of 7.79 percent in late October.
Prices declined in 2023 in four metro areas, Redfin said: Fort Worth, Texas; Austin, Texas; San Francisco and Denver. They rose the most in Newark, New Jersey; Anaheim, California; West Palm Beach, Florida; Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
