Home buyers may be less likely to face a bidding war than in previous months, but that doesn't mean they won't be facing competition from other home shoppers. A new report from the real estate brokerage Redfin showed that 32 percent of real estate pros say they faced one or more competing bids in November, down from 45 percent a year earlier. That marks an all-time low in bidding wars since the firm started tracking such data in 2011.

For example, Seattle was once a market primed for bidding wars among buyers. During the spring selling season this year, three out of four offers in Seattle faced competition. But as of November, only about one out of every five offers in Seattle faced competition, the lowest rate among the largest markets tracked by Redfin.

On the other hand, Philadelphia was the only metro area where buyers faced significantly more competition in November than a year ago. It's also one of the markets where inventory is shrinking and homes are selling faster and for more money, Redfin notes.

  Read more at NAR's Realtor Magazine.

In November, housing inventory climbed 5%, marking its fastest growth in the last three years, according to new 

data from Redfin.

Last month, U.S. home sale prices rose 3.3% year-over-year, coming in at a median of $298,800. In fact, November was the third consecutive month of annual home price gains below 4%, following a 77-month long streak of annual home price gains. 

"Sellers are now competing for buyers, but they haven't all realized it yet. Sellers who have adjusted their price expectations downward are still finding plenty of willing buyers," Fairweather continued. "Sellers holding out for high prices are contributing to declining home sales and growing inventories."  Read more at HousingWire.

Mortgage rates fell moderately, helping them move part of the way back down toward their lowest levels in more than 3 months (seen back on Friday).  The average lender continues quoting rates that are roughly 3/8ths of a percentage point lower than the highs from early November.  

Last Friday's low rates marked the culmination of the strongest winning streak for rates of 2018.  We've been in a bit of a holding pattern since then, with next week's scheduled announcement from the Federal Reserve likely serving as the motivation for the next (and probably last) big wave of momentum for the year.  "Big wave" is more of a relative term, perhaps.  It may only end up being "big" relative to the current, fairly flat week leading up to it.  Read More at Mortgage News Daily.

Read more from CNBC.