Good morning! This holiday week we’re talking about home sales and heating bills — plus gawking at some amazing ski escapes.
‘Frozen’ home sales
Sam Island for Money
‘Frozen’: that’s how NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun described the housing market in a press release Wedneaday.
He was talking specifically about the pace of existing-home sales, which declined 7.7% in November and 35.4% from a year earlier to an annual rate of 4.09 million homes.
Yun compared the environment to spring 2020, when home sales came to halt amid pandemic lockdowns and uncertainty.
"It's quite an amazing situation that today's sales activity in November is essentially almost the same as that lockdown period," he said at a press conference.
The only time in recent memory that sales were so low was November 2010, when the market was still recovering from the housing crash.
Like the weather, sales have been cooling for months. November marked the 10th month in a row that sales declined. But —
"The market may be thawing since mortgage rates have fallen for five* straight weeks," Yun added.
*By Thursday, Freddie Mac reported a sixth week of declining mortgage rates.
Heating bill help
Money; Shutterstock
Winter officially began this week, and my heating bill knows it.
Luckily for some, several states are offering help. For example, officials in Connecticut are working on a plan to give residents $10 credits toward their electric bills each month from January through April.
When it comes to travel, my philosophy is: Why be cold when you can be warm? But these stunning homes in skiing hotspots might just make me rethink that logic.
P.P.S. Have a friend who loves real estate or is looking for a home of their own? Please forward them this email or send them to the Money Moves subscription page.
Money’s Essential Home Buying Resources: Winter 2022
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