Home sales fall for fourth month in a row

In November, home sales and purchases in the province of Teruel experienced a fourth consecutive year-on-year decline, as 120 transactions were closed, compared with 139 a year earlier, representing a drop of 13.6%. For the year’s total, the decline is 5.4%, to 1,334, according to the Property Transfer Statistics published this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Of the 120 houses sold in the province of Teruel in the penultimate month of last year, 113 were vacant and 7 secured, and of the total, 111 were used and 9 were new.

The cumulative decline in home sales from January to November was due to both a fall in transactions with used apartments (5.5% to 1,151 transactions) and a decrease in sales of new homes (4.7% to 183). .

1,334 purchase and sale transactions accounted for 51.8% of changes in home ownership before November, of which there were 2,574. Also, 761 changed ownership by inheritance, 48 by gift and 3 by exchange.

In Aragon as a whole, home sales fell 2.2% in November compared with the same month last year, recording 1,310 transactions, according to INE.

Nationally, the decline intensified in November to 15.1% with 46,888 operations, completing ten negative months, although it was up again by 2.1% on the previous month. It fell 9.3% in the first eleven months of 2023, with declines of 4.3% for new homes and 10.4% for used homes.

The purchase and sale of houses in November increased only in three autonomous communities, in Asturias, Cantabria and Castile-La Mancha, by 6.6%, 5.1% and 2.6%, respectively, and fell in the rest, much less in Aragon .

Property portals indicated that the decline in house sales in November follows the downward trend recorded throughout the year, which is more likely due to a reduction in the supply available for sale rather than a “severe” reduction in demand. Additionally, they claim that “some stabilization” will occur in mid-2024 due to “normalization of prices and less fluctuating interest rates.”