{"id":424595,"date":"2026-01-21T23:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/424595\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T23:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:19:12","slug":"pending-home-sales-plunge-across-the-us-midwest-sees-worst-sales-on-record-northeast-2nd-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/424595\/","title":{"rendered":"Pending Home Sales Plunge across the US. Midwest Sees Worst Sales on Record, Northeast 2nd Worst"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t For the US overall, worst sales for any December on record. The housing market took a bad turn, from already low levels.
\nBy\u00a0Wolf Richter<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0WOLF STREET<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pending home sales, which track the number of contracts signed in December, plunged by 9.3% seasonally adjusted from November, to the lowest level for any December on record in the data by the National Association of Realtors, which goes back to 2010. Compared to December 2010, during the Housing Bust, pending sales were down by 21.5%.<\/p>\n

The market is now well into its fourth year of the collapse in transactions, and there has simply been no improvement.<\/p>\n

Pending home sales compared to the Decembers in prior years (historic data via\u00a0YCharts<\/a>):<\/p>\n

2024: -3.0% (year-over-year)
\n2023: -8.1%
\n2022: -5.9%
\n2021:\u00a0-38.2%
\n2020:\u00a0-43.2%
\n2019:\u00a0-30.6%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The metric of pending sales tracks contracts that were signed in December but that haven\u2019t closed yet and could still get canceled because buyers cannot afford homeowner\u2019s insurance, or cannot sell their own home, or for other reasons. The rate of cancellations has been running high in 2025.<\/p>\n

The December downturn in pending sales occurred in all four regions, from already low levels, but was particularly pronounced in the Midwest, where sales collapsed by 14.9% seasonally adjusted to a new record low.<\/p>\n

Pending home sales by region.<\/p>\n

A map of the four Census Regions is posted in the comments below.<\/p>\n

In the Midwest,\u00a0pending sales plunged by 14.9% seasonally adjusted in December from November and by 9.8% year-over-year, to a new record low level of sales in the data going back to 2010.<\/p>\n

Compared to the Decembers of prior years:<\/p>\n

2024: -9.8% (year-over-year)
\n2023: -16.0%
\n2022: -13.2%
\n2021:\u00a0-39.6%
\n2020:\u00a0-41.3%
\n2019:\u00a0-31.7%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the West,\u00a0pending sales plunged by 13.3% in December from November, seasonally adjusted, to the worst level of sales for any December on record, and to the fourth-lowest level of sales for any month.<\/p>\n

Compared to the Decembers of prior years:<\/p>\n

2024: -5.1% (year-over-year)
\n2023: -9.0%
\n2022: -8.0%
\n2021:\u00a0-41.0%
\n2020:\u00a0-51.2%
\n2019: -40.9%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the Northeast,\u00a0pending sales plunged by 11.0%\u00a0month-to-month, to the second-worst level of sales on record.<\/p>\n

Compared to the Decembers of prior years:<\/p>\n

2024: -3.6% (year-over-year)
\n2023: -3.5%
\n2022: -6.0%
\n2021:\u00a0-36.5%
\n2020:\u00a0-44.5%
\n2019:\u00a0-33.9%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the South,\u00a0pending sales fell by 4.0% in December. Compared to the Decembers of prior years:<\/p>\n

2024: +2.0% (year-over-year)
\n2023: -4.7%
\n2022: -0.7%
\n2021:\u00a0-36.6%
\n2020:\u00a0-39.8%
\n2019:\u00a0-23.5%.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At fault are the ultra-low mortgage rates of 2020-2022 that ended up destroying the housing market in two ways: By causing prices to explode in a two-year time span, and by \u201clocking in\u201d homeowners with ultra-low mortgage rates who now cannot afford to move, which has destroyed the dynamics that come with a functioning housing market, such as mobility, where people are able to move.<\/p>\n

The unwinding of the below-4% mortgage rates is occurring, and so the lock-in effect is gradually loosening as these mortgages get paid off nevertheless, but at a snail\u2019s pace [\u201cLocked-in\u201d Homeowners Nevertheless Pay Off Below-4% Mortgages: their Share Drops to Lowest since Q4 2020<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Enjoy reading WOLF STREET and want to support it? You can donate. I appreciate it immensely. Click on the mug to find out how:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

WOLF STREET FEATURE: Daily Market Insights by Chris Vermeulen, Chief Investment Officer, TheTechnicalTraders.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the US overall, worst sales for any December on record. The housing market took a bad turn,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-424595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}