In November, sales of older homes in the United States showed a decline of more than 38 percent compared to January numbers, which were the 2022 peak, according to the National Association of Realtors.
At the end of October, 30-year mortgage rates, the benchmark in the US market, were 7.16 percent year-on-year, the highest in 21 years.
It has decreased slightly since then, until it recorded 6.58 percent at the end of December.
In March, monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve to curb inflation began, bringing an end to the era of cheap money that had begun with the outbreak of COVID-19.
“It’s clear that the market has taken a turn,” says David Schlichter, real estate broker at Compass, in Denver, Colorado.
“We went from the most boiling market in history, with commodities that were mostly overpriced, in the space of a few days, to an environment where doing deals for less than what was initially requested became normal,” he told AFP.
Since the historic peak in June, the average price per property has fallen by 11 percent to $370,700.
However, it remains 3.5 percent higher than the price recorded last year in the same period and by 30 percent from May 2020, before the real estate investment fever generated by the pandemic.
CoreLogic expects a slight decline of 2.8 percent in average price between November 2022 and November 2023.
There is no expectation of a repeat of the mortgage crisis that hit the US real estate sector for several years, as old house prices fell 27 percent between the peak of the crisis in June 2008 and its lowest level in January 2012.
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