Homes are not selling like hotcakes

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Last month, the housing market had the energy of a spider web-covered basement that’s used for storage. After months of recovery, sales of preowned US homes decreased by 8.4% in January from December, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported yesterday. Despite mortgage rates falling throughout 2025: Home sales were down 4.4% from a year ago, amounting to the worst month for home closings in more than two years. Dwellings sat unsold for a median of 46 days last month, compared with 41 days a year prior. Housewarming recession The NAR says arctic weather in parts of the US may be partially to blame for market frigidness, but places that weren’t impacted also experienced home sales declines. Analysts attribute tepid homebuying to economic uncertainty, on top of low inventory that’s keeping prices high. The number of homes on the market rose by 3.4% in January from a year earlier, but given the monthly pace of sales, that equals just 3.7 months’ worth of supply. Six months of supply is considered a balanced market. In a silver lining for buyers and sellers…the median price of homes crept up by 0.9%, to $396,800, over the year—but they’ve become more affordable, thanks to wage growth and lower mortgage rates, according to the NAR.