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Real estate data company Black Knight reported a 29.2 percent month-over-month fall in the number of mortgage rate-locks prospective buyers in Greater Boston and southern New Hampshire secured in November.

Around 9 in 10 rate locks, which mark a buyer actively entering the housing market, were for purchase applications nation-wide and in most metro areas.

While homebuying activity typically falls off dramatically in November and December, the drop-off reported by Black Knight came even as Freddie Mac reported the average mortgage rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate loan slid from 7.08 percent to 6.49 percent. in three weeks. Analysts at Zillow calculated that the slide in rates knocked 5.1 percent off a buyer’s monthly mortgage payment in the Boston area with a 20 percent down payment.

It was also much more precipitous than what occurred nationally or in similar markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The fall in the number of rate locks secured in Boston compares to only a 21.5 percent drop at a national level, a 20.7 percent fall in the Philadelphia area, an 18.4 percent slip in the New York City metro and a 19.5 percent drop in the Washington, D.C. region.

“While we would normally expect some seasonal pullback in activity in November, we are also seeing exceptionally strong headwinds in purchase activity from continued affordability challenges and a refinance market that has dwindled to all but nonexistent levels,” Scott Happ, president of Black Knight division Optimal Blue, said in a statement about the national-level data picture. “Stalled inventory and rates nearly twice what they were a year ago are combining to negate the benefits of recent home price and rate declines from an affordability perspective.”

The huge drop in activity among aspiring homebuyers coincides with roughly 15 percent drops each in new condominium and new single-family home listings within Boston and the Route 128 belt in November, the Greater Boston Association of Realtors reported this week, and slightly larger fall-offs appeared statewide according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.

“Our fall market has been hit by a double whammy of rising inflation and higher mortgage interest rates which has not only reduced buyer purchasing power, but diminished overall demand as some have stopped looking for a home altogether,” GBAR 2022 President Melvin Vieira Jr. said in a statement. “As costs have risen across the economy, we’ve seen more and more buyers apply the brakes to their home search, while others are taking advantage of the decline in buyer competition to proceed more cautiously, and that’s resulted in a slower, more normal sales pace in recent months,”