DEAR FRIENDS AND CLIENTS,
Fall is here, and as the weather begins to cool, so does the real estate market. We’re still very much in a seller’s market, but the incredible rate of appreciation we’ve been experiencing has started to slow. But home prices are still rising slowly.
The National Association of Realtors sees the surge in home prices that we’ve experienced over the past year as an anomaly that was driven by pend-up demand due to the pandemic and low interest rates. Things are starting to settle down and we’re seeing last year’s trends ease as well. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said, “The housing sector is clearly settling down. Home sales are trying to return to a normal equilibrium after that big surge we saw last year.”
Yun further explained, Sales slipped a bit in August as prices rose nationwide. Potential buyers are out and about searching but much more measure about their financial limits and simply waiting for more inventory.” Newly constructed home sales are up 1.5% from August, while existing home sales dropped by 2%. Both figures are still higher than their pre-pandemic counterparts.
The median price of a home nationally now sits right at $375,000. That’s an astonishing appreciation of 15% from last year. The average days on market is 17 days. These quick sales are also due to lack of inventory., A healthy market should have six months inventory, but right now we have about 2.6 months. That’s down 1.5% from July and 13.4% from this time last year.
BCA Research puts it like this:
“While we expect growth momentum to ease, temporary forces due to the Delta variant accentuated the moderation in activity between August and September. The reports note that health concerns are weighing on the service sector. Similarly, labor supply and material shortages are restraining manufacturing output and pushing up the backlog of work. Meanwhile, supply chain disruptions and rising transportation costs are raising price pressures. Higher input costs are being transferred to clients in the form of an increase in output prices.”
All of these factors are coming together to hurt affordability. Despite the market starting to cool off, the percentage of buyers who were buying for the first time dropped to 29%. This is a low we haven’t seen since January of 2019. However, economists are hopeful that we’ll see more inventory reach the market soon. The chief economist at Keller Williams, Ruben Gonzalez, said, “Overall, we think home sales will remain strong going into next year, but we should see inventory levels continue to slowly trend toward more normal levels and home price appreciation begin to slow over time.”
If you’re thinking about selling your home, you haven’t missed your chance. This is still a seller’s market and you can net a great profit from your house. To instantly calculate your home’s value in today’s market base on recent Kitsap sales, go to TheOriginalPenny.com/Home-valuation.
If you have any questions about the market or are thinking about buying or selling, don’t hesitate to call me at #206-618-5123 or email me at penny@theoriginalpenny.com. I’m here to help you meet your real estate goals in this shifting market.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Penny McLaughlin