January 24, 2025
- The Realtor.com庐 economics team update gives you the relevant economic and real estate information you need to know each week every Friday to navigate the housing market as a homebuyer, home seller, or industry professional.
- For the week ending January 24, Realtor.com庐 Chief Economist Danielle Hale recaps what the聽December jobs report and mixed inflation readings mean for the January Fed meeting.
- Danielle discusses existing home sales strong finish in 2024 as well as recent mortgage rate trends and what that could mean for 2025 home sales.
- The latest weekly data from Realtor.com show that active listings continue to grow as sellers continue to engage with the market, and Danielle discusses how evolving mortgage trends will affect rate-lock considerations.
- Finally, Danielle covers findings from two recent Realtor.com reports–one on the best markets for first-time home buyers and a second on trends in homeowners association fees.
- You鈥檒l find all the details including full reports and our housing data for download at Big gaming/research. You can also follow us on (formerly ) for real time updates. And @realtordotcomecon for graphics.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
- 滨鈥檓 Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com庐. And here鈥檚 what you need to know about the economy and housing market so far in 2025.
- Although we鈥檙e three weeks into the new year, economic indicators coming out are still putting the final brush strokes or pixels, if you will, on our picture of 2024.
- The December jobs report showed robust growth in employment and a dip in unemployment. Put simply鈥搕he labor market had a better than expected finish in 2024.聽
- Meanwhile, inflation had a mixed finish. The bad: Headline inflation ticked higher with 40% of the monthly uptick driven by higher energy prices. The good: Core inflation鈥揳 helpful indicator of underlying inflation pressure鈥搈oderated and shelter inflation steadied, suggesting ongoing if slow progress toward the Fed鈥檚 2% inflation goal.
- The Fed is likely to highlight this at its January meeting. I don鈥檛 expect any rate changes as the economy is in a strong enough position to enable the Fed to be patient in its approach to rate cutting.聽
- December existing home sales rose in the month and versus one year ago. Despite a third month of year-over-year gains, December鈥檚 sales were too little too late for the year. The early read on 2024 sales suggests that it was the lowest annual total in nearly 30 years.聽
- Looking ahead, mortgage rates, which have been elevated in recent weeks, are likely to be an early-year headwind. However, we saw the 30-year fixed slip back under 7%. I expect to see home sales improve as mortgage rates settle.
- It鈥檚 early in the year, but so far in 2025, we鈥檝e seen the number of home sellers surpass year-ago levels. Realtor.com weekly data show that not only have active listings grown, but newly listed homes are also up, suggesting active seller engagement. As the share of mortgaged homeowners locked into rates under 6% slowly shrinks, I expect we鈥檒l see more of this ahead.
- Finally, I want to highlight two interesting analyses. Despite challenging conditions, Realtor.com examined a variety of real estate and local market factors to identify key areas of opportunity for first-time home buyers. These markets are overwhelmingly in the Northeast and South, but even in these high-opportunity areas, first-timers will likely have to make tradeoffs, which is why working with a real estate agent who can help guide you through those considerations can be helpful.
- Additionally, we took a look at homeowners association fees and found that among for-sale home listings these became both more common and more costly in 2024.
- You can find all the details, including full reports and our housing data for download, at Big gaming/research.聽 You can also follow us on (formerly ) for real time updates. And for graphics.
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