Home sales dropped 7.8% after 28 months of year-over-year increases as the market made expected seasonal adjustments, the latest RE/MAX national housing report revealed.
"The recovery is simultaneously impacted by a combination of factors – rising interest rates, the government shutdown, mortgage qualification difficulties, severe weather and seasonality," the report stated.
Meanwhile, the median home price in November rose 13.7% to $187,000, mostly due to a still tight supply of homes for sale.
The current number of months necessary to sell the entire inventory of homes slightly increased to 5.4 months, which is close to the 6-month supply that defines a market balanced equally between buyers and sellers.
In addition, the current 12.9% drop in inventory from November 2012 is less than half the annual inventory loss seen in April of this year.
"In a month when we normally expect home sales to slow down, this November we’ve seen more than seasonality at play. While the fundamentals for a housing recovery remain in place, the market never moves in a straight line. Along the way, we should expect some fluctuations resulting from a number of different factors," said Margaret Kelly, CEO of RE/MAX.
