Right around now is typically the time of year when the housing market starts hibernating — the holidays, cold weather, and NFL games take priority over those Sunday open house visits.
Well, come snow or rain or Thanksgiving dinner, there are signs that would-be homebuyers may be more active now than in years past. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage applications were up 31% last week compared to the same time last year. That’s the strongest pace since September.
November and December are usually the slow months for Craig O’Boyle, a real estate agent in Colorado Springs. But so far, slow season has been, well, less slow.
“On Friday, I got three offers on two listings that had kind of just sat for a while,” he said. “And then I got an offer on another listing, and they span all price ranges like the lower end to the extreme higher end out here.”
The offers came in below listing price, which wasn’t surprising — ‘tis the season for bargain househunting.
“It’s the same type of mentality people going out on Black Friday,” O’Boyle said. “‘Hey I’ve had my eye on this house for awhile, maybe I could get 10% off.’”
Except instead of waiting in line outside Target ready to engage in hand-to-hand combat over the same TV, you’re much less likely to run into competition at an end-of-year open house. (People are busy for the holidays.)
And if you find a property still on the market, the sellers are usually eager to negotiate.
“You are kinda dealing with the leftovers from the year, to use a Thanksgiving metaphor,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “Those homes have been sitting on the market for longer … the sellers, they start to get a little motivated. Most people who own a home they want it to be done with it by the time Thanksgiving and the holidays roll around.”
Investors and second homeowners are usually the big buyers this time of year. But this season, they’re being joined by more regular homebuyers looking to lock in a 6% mortgage rate on a 30-year fixed.
Economist Danielle Hale at Realtor.com said even though rates started dropping a few months ago, “we know that it takes some time for buyers to find out about and then react to lower mortgage rates. And last year, when mortgage rates dropped in September, we saw the pickup in home sales in November, December timeframe.”
Buyers may also be trying to lock in rates while they are relatively low.
“I think there is a good chance that this might be a low point for rates, and they might be higher come January,” said Redfin’s Fairweather. “It’s definitely not guaranteed that the Fed will cut.”
Mortgage rates are loosely tied to Federal Reserve rates, and it’s unclear what Fed chair Jay Powell and company will do next month — let alone what they’ll do in 2026.