Was Contract Activity Slower Than Expected In November And December 2022?

Were this past November and December (2022) a bit slower than expected when it came to contract activity?  Did fewer buyers (and sellers) sign contracts to buy (and sell) homes during the last two months of 2022?

I suppose whether contract activity was "slower than expected" depends on what you expected.

If you were expecting the same amount of contract activity as we saw in those same months in 2021 then yes, contract activity was definitely slower than expected.

As shown above, 222 contracts were signed in November and December of 2021... but only 138 were signed in those same two months in 2022.  Quite a bit slower!

And they went under contract... slightly (+/-) slower as well.  The median "days on market" in the last two months of 2021 was seven days... and that figure rose to a median of 10 days when looking at the last two months of 2022.

The super, really important, disclaimer here is that after having risen throughout all of 2022 from about 3% up to about 6%, mortgage interest rates peaked just above 7% in... November.

Stay tuned to see how things unfold in January and February of 2023!