In a year of housing market horrors for buyers, now may be the best time to buy, according to a new analysis from Redfin.
In the last three weeks, rates have sunk from 8% to 7.4%, giving buyers breathing room after a succession of rate increases. Just last week, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped by 25 bps, the largest single-week decline since July 2022.
At the same time, though inventory remains low it is on the rise. New listings were up 1.5% YOY at the beginning of November, only the second stock increase in more than a year.
Plus, with demand slowing as rates priced more buyers out of the market, the number of sellers cutting prices is on…
American home shoppers have plenty to fear this Halloween as the housing crunch continues. But where buyers live plays a role in how stressful their experience is.
Though markets are tough across the nation, California is home to the scariest housing markets in the U.S., according to a new analysis by Point2.
Of the 200 largest American metros, California markets bode worst for homebuyers based on price changes and for-sale inventory.
Nine of the ten worst markets are in California, and they aren’t stereotypically wealthy West Coast leaders like San Francisco and Los Angeles. Instead, these are emerging hubs like Escondido and Sunnyvale, which were once more affordable than their famous counterparts.
Finding affordable housing in California has long been…
At the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting, the Central Bank hinted at a pause in rate hikes as soon as June but still increased the benchmark rate by a quarter-point. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, found that puzzling.
During the “Residential Economic Issues & Trends Forum” at NAR’s 2023 REALTORS Legislative Meeting, he called the increase unnecessary and stressed further increases harm the housing market and the economy at large.
Inventory, not interest rates, is the driving force behind the current housing market. Stock remains down 40% compared to 2019, while demand keeps growing.
“We have to stop the bleeding before improvement takes place,” Yun said. “We need to get more inventory, and the…
New listings continue to trend down as rate lock-in and affordability concerns keep homeowners stuck in their current living situation.
HouseCanary’s latest Market Pulse report found that net new listings fell by double digits for the tenth straight month in February.
The report, which analyzed twenty-two metrics pulled from listing information between February 2022 and February 2023, found that 157,967 net new listings went up last month, down 43.6% YOY.
Properties that went under contract also fell, totaling only 247,294, a 17% decrease YOY.
New listings drove net volume down, falling 31.7%, combined with a 72.6% rise in removals.
Median days on the market were up 48.3% YOY to 43 days. However, days on the market fell month-over-month by nearly…
Annual single-family home price growth dipped from Q3 2022 to Q4 2022, according to Fannie Mae’s Home Price Index. Prices rose by 9.2% YOY in Q4, down from 13.1% in Q3. They increased just 0.2% quarter-over-over when seasonally adjusted, and fell 1% unadjusted. The index measures the average quarterly price change for all single-family properties in the United States, excluding condos. “The rise in mortgage rates over the past year and record inflation have constrained the purchasing power of prospective homebuyers. The resulting affordability pressures are evident in the home price declines of the past two quarters, along with the downturn in home sales,” said Mark Palim, Fannie Mae Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. Demand has dwindled as many…
Broker confidence fell for the second straight month in February, though brokers are “cautiously optimistic” about the future, according to RISMedia’s February Broker Confidence Index (BCI). The index, which is scaled 1 to 10, fell to 7.5 from January’s 7.9 and December 2021’s 8.2. For the 3,000 brokers surveyed, rising interest rates were not a big cause for concern. They felt that rising rates won’t hurt demand considering current market conditions. Brokers’ biggest worries were inflation and inventory, with a nod to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. “The continued lack of supply has really created a bubble,” Quincy Smith, a broker with ERA Matt Fischer in Yuma, Arizona, told RISMedia. “With the equity market starting what appears to be a…
Home price appreciation and stock shortages are likely to continue through the first few months of 2022, as December saw price growth pick back up heading into the new year, a Realtor.com report shows. Though seller sentiment is positive, new listings are shrinking, squeezing the already competitive market. The number of homes actively for sale in January dropped 28.4% year-over-year (YOY), or 163,000 homes. Newly listed homes fell by 9.1% YOY and were 16.8% lower from typical 2017-2020 levels. The January national median listing price for active listings was $375,000, a 10.3% increase YOY and up 25% from January 2020. The median listing price for a typical single-family home increased 18.6% YOY. The report notes that though high home prices…
