Company: HOUS
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001398987-25-000020
Chunk: 3

Company: Anywhere Real Estate Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 3
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 TRENDS

The residential real estate market is at historic lows, with existing homesale transactions in 2024 and 2023 marking the lowest annual transaction amount since 1995, according to NAR data. Furthermore, a significant decline in existing homesale transactions of 34% occurred from 2021 to 2024. For 2025, as of their most recently released forecast, Fannie Mae is forecasting existing homesale transactions to increase 3% to 4.18 million.

In 2024, Franchise Group saw a 5% increase in volume, calculated as the number of closed homesale sides multiplied by the average homesale price, and Owned Brokerage Group experienced a 4% increase in volume, both as compared to prior year.

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The number of closed homesale sides for Franchise Group decreased by 3% in 2024 compared to 2023, while the average homesale price increased by 8%. Similarly, Owned Brokerage Group reported a 4% decrease in closed homesale sides in 2024 as compared to prior year, while the average homesale price increased 7%.

Cost Savings. During 2024, the Company realized cost savings of approximately $125 million.

Mortgage Rates. Freddie Mac's data shows that the average mortgage rates for a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage more than doubled in 2022 reaching a peak of 7.79% in the fourth quarter of 2023, the highest since 2000. In the ten years preceding the commencement of actions by the Federal Reserve in March 2022 (which were intended to control inflation) the average mortgage rate was 3.78%, ranging from a high of 4.94% to a low of 2.65%. In comparison, mortgage rates remained above 6% throughout 2024. As of February 20, 2025, the U.S. weekly mortgage rate average was 6.85% on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

Mortgage rates are influenced by a multitude of factors, including federal interest rates, Treasury note yields, inflation, demand, consumer income, unemployment levels, foreclosure rates, and fiscal and monetary policies. Between March 2022 and July 2023, the Federal Reserve took action intended to control inflation, raising the target federal funds rate by over 400 basis points in 2022 and an additional 100 basis points in 2023. From September 2024 to December