'Tis not quite the season — the usual subdued holiday home-buying season — because the racing housing market is barely letting up.

If anything, the rate of sales growth has slowed. Across the country, that's what happened in October, according to the National Association of Realtors: Sales crept up 0.8% compared with the month before, well off the gain of 7% in September.

Here, sales fell 9% from 2,651 in September to 2,415 in October, according to the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.

But October sales were still higher than in pre-coronavirus October 2017, 2018, and 2019 — by 33.2%, 21.2%, and 15.8%, respectively.

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And prices continued to rise — the median up 2.5% and the average up 4.6%, month to month, across the metro Realtors' service area.

The year-to-date increases continued to boggle: In Oklahoma City and the surrounding suburbs, both the median price through October, $235,000, and the average price, $278,876, were up 8.8% compared with last year.

Home sales fall, demand persists

So why are prices still rising even with sales dropping here from September to October? The number of new listings was even up in October.

Demand is still sky high. The number of new listings in October, 1,996, was higher than the number of homes still listed for sale at the end of October, 1,831.

That's a one-month supply, in a market where homes sold in just 15 days on average.

"We don’t have an inventory problem," said Jared Kennedy, founder of Lime Realty. "We have a supply and demand problem, and even though demand is slowing a little it’s still really high.

"We are selling the same amount, or more, than normal across every (price) range. Inventory is just fine. But the demand is very high, so the way the market is being approached is very good for sellers."

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Landon Whitt, an agent and CEO of OKCReal, said he's seen what may be some cooling in investor demand. Out-of-state investors have been helping pump up demand and prices. It's made getting into a home especially difficult for first-time buyers.

"I have had three different investors get cold feet after placing an offer, and pull out of the deal, just in the last two weeks, all due to concerns about unstable returns," Whitt said. "Customers bringing cash above appraisal has ended for us since September."

Is the demand for homes turning?

Something seems to be turning in the market, said Kacie Kinney, an agent with Keller Williams Elite.

"Things seem to be slowing but it’s hard to tell if it is seasonality, buyer fatigue, or the market," Kinney said. "Lots of buyers have put their searches on hold over the holidays because the stress of losing in multiple offers has become too much.

"For me as a listing agent, we are still experiencing multiple offers on most listings, but we might get five or six offers, whereas a couple months ago we were getting 10 to 15 offers or more. We listed two houses that were extremely similar in the same neighborhood three months apart. The first one this summer got 16 offers and the next one got six in October. Only time will tell."

Not all agents have detected the hint of a slowdown..

"Busy, busy! Closings leading into the holidays and listings coming in December!" said Emily Frosaker-Kyle, with Modern Abode Realty.

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Steve Bennett of Redbud Property Inspections LLC said he still has his work cut out for him.

"My company performed 250 home inspections in October. Our third-quarter average was 222 a month. November will probably end closer to the third-quarter average. Doesn’t seem to be slowing much on our side of things," he said.

For their part, metro-area builders started more houses in October than in September, and 5,535 so far this year in Oklahoma City, unincorporated Oklahoma County, Bethany, Blanchard, Choctaw, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore, Mustang, Newcastle, Noble, Norman, Shawnee and Yukon, according to Dharma Inc.'s Builder Report.

That was up 8% from 2020.

New to your house? Do these things

Vanessa Johnson of eXP Realty, who serves on the board of the Metro Association of Realtors board, said she always advises new homeowners to:

• Change all locks and reset all pass codes, including for garages. “You never know who has a key,” she said.

• Get to know your neighbors, especially if you have kids. “Introduce yourself and get a feel for them,” she said.

• Update your address for any planned deliveries, including regularly scheduled packages.

In addition, RISmedia's Housecall, a housing industry blog, recommends that people in a new or new-to-them house locate the fuse box, find water and gas shut-off valves, test smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, create emergency plans, and check out HVAC systems.

Senior Business Writer Richard Mize has covered housing, construction, commercial real estate, and related topics for the newspaper and Oklahoman.com since 1999. Contact him at rmize@oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Holiday home demand persists in Oklahoma City and its suburbs