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November homes sales drop, but remain above year prior

Existing home sales in November dropped slightly by 2.5 percent from October. However, the current housing market continues to show enduring strength as November totals remained up significantly compared to the same month in 2019, up 25.8 percent from a year ago.

Despite a drop in November existing home sales, the month still showed how strong the U.S. housing market remains.

Sales fell for the first time since May, transaction volume remains just below its highest levels in nearly 15 years.

Low mortgage rates have helped fuel competition for the relatively few homes available for sale, leading homes to fly off the market and prices to trend upward at a historically strong pace.

Similar to sales volume, annual price growth pulled back slightly in November but remains near its strongest pace in more than a decade.

With mortgage rates appearing likely to hold near recent lows in the months ahead, and with a wave of people aging into prime homebuying age and looking to enter the market, these firm levels of demand for housing should endure into 2021 and prompt more activity throughout the entire housing market.