The US housing slump stretched into a fifth month, sending a measure of prices down 2.5% from a peak in June. Prices also fell roughly 0.3% in November from a month before, according to a seasonally adjusted data of national prices from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller.
Last year’s run-up in mortgage rates cast a chill on the housing market, leading to the worst annual slide in sales of previously owned homes in more than a decade.
That’s pressured prices, particularly in parts of the country such as San Francisco where affordability was already stretched. Prices in that California city were down 1.6% from a year earlier, its biggest year-over-year price decline in more than a decade.
Prices are still higher than a year ago as homeowners benefit from the ripple effects of an extended pandemic boom that broke records in many parts of the US. Growth, however, has been slowing. Prices were up 7.7% annually in November, down from the 9.2% gain in October.
In recent weeks, borrowing costs have eased, with the average on a 30-year fixed mortgage dropping to 6.13% in late January. Brokerage and data company Redfin Corp. recently pointed to signs that buyer interest might be picking up again, with pending deals on the rise in December and other measures of demand climbing.
