Housing prices were down in all 20 cities tracked by the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index.

New-home sales rose 7.5% month over month, while the median price of a new house surged to $493,000 from $455,700 in September and $427,300 a year ago, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported.   

New listings tend to dip into the negative territory around the holidays, as consumers are busy with preparations.

The pace of new single-family home sales, meanwhile, fell 6.1% from September to 598,000. 

The median existing-home price rose for the 128th month in a row, extending its record-breaking streak of increases. 

The number of homes under construction rose during the month, as homebuilders continued to work through a large backlog of homes. 

The largest single-week decline in conventional mortgage rates since July brought the first increase in home-loan applications since September, the Mortgage Bankers Association said. 

HAR’s Q3 2022 Housing Affordability Index shows that only 41% of Houston households can afford to purchase a median-priced home. A year ago, that statistic was significantly higher at 53%.

A new study from Texas Real Estate Source reveals which Texas metro areas have seen the largest increases in property prices since 2012.

While existing home sales are down, housing starts have increased year over year. Houston has also seen a healthy increase in inventory.

Looking ahead, CoreLogic expects national year-over-year appreciation to slow to 3.9% by September 2023. 

September is the fourth month in a row to see declining sales activity. 

A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 7.08% this week from 6.94% a week ago, Freddie Mac reported. A year ago, the average mortgage carried a 3.14% rate. 

Mortgage rates continued to weigh on homebuyers in September, following a brief uptick in new-home sales in August.  

At the same time, mortgage applications declined 1.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis on a week-over-week basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. 

Despite the slowdown, however, U.S. housing prices remain significantly higher than they were a year ago.