Redfin reports that the number of pending U.S. homes sales fell by 32% year-over-year for the four weeks ending January 1 and have been at their lowest level since at least 2015.

As pending sales plummeted by over 50% in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Austin, three of the country’s hotspots for homebuying, the declines were greatest. Due to elevated mortgage rates, continued fears of a recession, low listings, severe winter weather, and the typical seasonal holiday housing market slowdown, the housing market collapsed by the end of 2022

There are mixed signals of early-stage demand. The Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index, a measure of tour requests and other Redfin agents’ services to buyers, increased by 8% from two weeks ago.

Moreover, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a 13.2% drop in mortgage applications for the week ending December 30, 2022.

During the four weeks ending January 1, 2023, the average U.S. home sold for $350,000, an increase of just 0.5% from a year earlier and slightly slower than the 0.7% growth reported when the pandemic first began. The national average home price was down 10% from its peak in June. Within the 50 most populous metro areas covered by Redfin, home-sale prices fell year-over-year in 19 metro areas. Compared to a month earlier, only 10 metro areas saw price declines.

The price drop in San Francisco was the greatest year-over-year decline since at least 2015. There was a decline of 2% or less in home prices in Anaheim, California; Riverside, California; Chicago; Newark, New Jersey; Portland, Oregon; San Diego and Washington, D.C..

According to ShowingTime, a home tour technology company, in the week ending December 31, 2022, Google searches for “Homes for Sale” began to rise from the low reached in November, but they were still down 33% from the year before. As of December 29, home tour activity had decreased 63% from the start of the year, compared to a 54% decrease last year.