The residential real estate market came to a crawl last month—and it all comes down to persistently high mortgage rates.
The Realtor.com 2025 housing forecast projects that mortgage rates will continue to average 6% next year. The report forecasts that mortgage rates will average 6.3% across 2025 and end the year at 6.2%. That’s a leg down from the 6.7% average expected across 2024 by year-end, but still well above the 4% historical average recorded from 2013 to 2019.
“The median price per square foot grew by 1.6%, indicating that the inventory of smaller and more affordable homes continues to grow in share,” McLaughlin explains. Indeed, housing stock levels are now the highest since December 2019, though this surge reflects more caution than seller enthusiasm. “The momentum in new listing growth seen last month continued to be stymied by rising mortgage rates in November,” says McLaughlin. “Fewer new sellers are coming to the market than the two months prior.”Buyers shopping in the South this November had the most homes to choose from. The region saw the biggest housing stock jump, with listings up 34.8% year over year.
This could be a chance for buyers to take their time and weigh their options without feeling rushed. But sellers should be prepared for a longer wait to get to the closing table than they might have expected just a few months ago.