November’s Housing Market Crawled to Its Slowest Pace in 5 Years—Even as Prices Fell and Housing Stock Jumped

The residential real estate market came to a crawl last month—and it all comes down to persistently high mortgage rates.

“We find that high rates in November had led to the slowest market since January of this year and the slowest November in five years,” says Realtor.com® senior economist Ralph McLaughlin in his November monthly housing report.

While the market tends to cool seasonally this time of year, the typical home stayed on the market for 62 days in November, a whopping 11 days longer than last year.

With the 30-year fixed mortgage rate pushing ever closer to 7%, it seems many budget-minded buyers largely sat out the fall housing market—leaving for-sale homes to linger on the listing pages.

The Realtor.com 2025 housing forecast projects that mortgage rates will continue to average 6% next year. The report forecasts that mortgage rates will average 6.3% across 2025 and end the year at 6.2%. That’s a leg down from the 6.7% average expected across 2024 by year-end, but still well above the 4% historical average recorded from 2013 to 2019.

“Higher mortgage rates continue to erode buyer purchasing power, making it harder for many would-be homeowners to afford the homes they want,” says McLaughlin.

But while the market might seem to be at a standstill, it’s moving into a new phase with more housing stock—which could bring more stability after the highs and lows of the past few years.

“Although many buyers are still stretched thin on housing affordability, today’s shoppers have some advantages,” says Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale.

Home prices are down

While mortgage rates seesawed ever higher throughout November, home prices showed a slight dip.

The median home price dropped by 0.7% year over year, settling at $416,880. But the full picture of how much a home costs nowadays is more nuanced.

“The median price per square foot grew by 1.6%, indicating that the inventory of smaller and more affordable homes continues to grow in share,” McLaughlin explains.

In other words, while the overall price tag for a home might have decreased, it’s because less expensive homes are entering the market, helping to balance higher-priced homes. For buyers, that could mean an opportunity to snag a more budget-friendly property in a market with cooling prices.

Meanwhile, sellers are still holding firm to their list prices in many cases, with 16.7% of listings undergoing price cuts in November—a drop from last year’s 18%.

“Sellers are becoming more cautious as market conditions shift,” says McLaughlin.

Even though price cuts are less frequent, there’s still some room for negotiation for buyers, especially for properties that have been sitting on the market.

Housing stock reached new highs

The tepid market helped active listings climb to highs this November not seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic as homes piled up while buyers took to the sidelines.

Active listings rose by 26.2% in November compared with last year, continuing the yearlong trend of growing inventory. Hale calls the November housing stock “the greatest number of options that home shoppers have seen since December 2019.”

Indeed, housing stock levels are now the highest since December 2019, though this surge reflects more caution than seller enthusiasm.

McLaughlin points out the total amount of homes for sale “is a sharp deceleration from October, which was up 29.2% year over year.”

While rising inventory is a sign of a more “balanced” market, fewer new homes are being listed, rising by just 2% compared with November 2023, a notable drop from October’s 4.9% increase.

As mortgage rates climb, potential sellers “locked in” to existing low mortgage rates are also biding their time, unsure of how high they can price them or what mortgage rate they will face if they try to buy a new one.

“The momentum in new listing growth seen last month continued to be stymied by rising mortgage rates in November,” says McLaughlin. “Fewer new sellers are coming to the market than the two months prior.”

The South boasts the most housing stock

Buyers shopping in the South this November had the most homes to choose from. The region saw the biggest housing stock jump, with listings up 34.8% year over year.

After years of listing shortages, this signals a return to a more stable market as housing levels slowly return to normal.

“The South saw the smallest gap in inventory compared to pre-pandemic levels, down just 1.4% compared to typical 2017 to 2019 levels,” says McLaughlin.

The West isn’t far behind, with inventory up 29.2%, though it’s still playing catch-up.

“The gap in inventory compared to pre-pandemic levels remains larger, down 4.5% from where it was before COVID,” says McLaughlin.

The Midwest and Northeast also saw more homes for sale in November, with levels up 18.9% and 9.7%, respectively.

New listings, however, were a mixed bag last month.

All regions except the Northeast (-6.0%) saw a rise in newly listed homes compared with 2023. The West led with a 6.3% bump, followed by 4.6% in the South and 1.0% in the Midwest.

Buyers looking for the most housing to choose from in the major metros should head to San Diego, where housing stock surged 52.5% year over year. Miami (+50.9%) and Denver (+50.7%) rounded out the top three metros with the largest rise in housing stock in November.

Meanwhile, Birmingham, AL (+14.2 %), and Las Vegas (+13.9 %) led the way with the most new listings.

Days on the market spikes

While homes are lingering for the longest time in five years before being snapped up by buyers, they are still going quicker than pre-pandemic days.

“The time a typical home spends on the market is still five days less than the average November from 2017 to 2019,” McLaughlin explains.

This could be a chance for buyers to take their time and weigh their options without feeling rushed. But sellers should be prepared for a longer wait to get to the closing table than they might have expected just a few months ago.

“In other words, buyers who want to take their time mulling a major decision are seeing the market support that,” says Hale.