"We buy ugly houses," a cash-buying house flipping company says, but the housing market as a whole looks pretty ugly right now.

With mortgage rates flirting with 7% and demand for home loans at a 28-year low, home sales might not spring back this spring as usual, even though the Realtors say sales are "bottoming out."

About the only good news — for owners and sellers at least — is that prices, while falling in some parts of the country, appear to be holding so far in the OKC area. Would-be buyers would prefer some more price breaks, of course, although the wheezing market already has returned considerable negotiating power to them.

Nationally, the housing market began the year "in a state of rebalance, with many buyers and sellers remaining cautious while they wait to see where the market is headed," the Realtors said.

Same here.

Luxury real estate in OKC: Here's the most expensive house sold in Oklahoma County in 2022, and what's inside

"Demand for housing persists," the Realtors said, "but higher mortgage interest rates have cut into housing affordability, with total home sales down 17.8% last year compared to 2021."

Higher interest rates have slammed home construction in Oklahoma City

Building permits issued so far this year are way down 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.

• January: 235, down 46.6% compared with 440 permits issued in January 2022.

• February: 236, down 49.5% compared with 467 permits issued in January 2022.

• Total, first two months of 2023: 471, down 48% compared with the first two months of 2022.

Those are lowest numbers for new home starts here in at least 10 years.

As for existing home sales, with such low inventory, there are still scattered reports of listings receiving multiple offers in bidding wars, but over all, the sellers' market is over. Sales may have bottomed out here in January, but pending sales recovered from hitting the basement the month before.

You can see it in the latest stats from the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.

Real estate alternatives:Self-storage is booming in OKC as an alternative real estate investment. Here's why

Latest OKC-area home sales statistics show sales swoon, price strength

Here are stats, from the Realtors, for January home sales in Oklahoma City, Arcadia, Bethany, Blanchard, Choctaw, Deer Creek, Edmond, Harrah, Luther, Midwest City, Moore, Mustang, Newcastle, Nicoma Park, Norman, Piedmont, Tuttle, Warr Acres and Yukon.

Statistics for February will be available in mid-March.

January 2023 home sales activity in the Oklahoma City area, according to the Realtors

• Closed (completed) sales: 832, down 28.2% from December, down 38.1% from January 2022.

• Pending sales (under contracted but not closed): 1,351, up 36.5% from December, up 12.2% from January 2022.

January 2023 home prices and changes in the Oklahoma City area, according to the Realtors

• Median price paid: $257,000, up 4% from December, up 10.8% from January 2022.

• Percent of list price received: 98.3%, down from 98.5% in December, down from 99.9% in January 2022.

Renting in OKC:What made apartment rents go up so far, so fast? What can we expect next in the OKC area?

January 2023 home inventory and comparisons in the Oklahoma City area, according to the Realtors

• Inventory of homes for sale by Realtors: 2,705, down 6.9% from December, up 127.5% from January 2022.

• Months' supply at current sales pace: 1.8 (55 days), down from 1.9 (58 days) in December, up from 0.7 (21 days) in January 2022.

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. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Real Estate with Richard Mize.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC homebuilding plummets, sales swoon ahead of spring buying season