I’m linking to a great article regarding today’s housing market. Essentially, climbing housing costs caused many house hunters to drop out in recent months, which is now providing some relief for the buyers who remain.
‘Homebuyers are getting some relief as sellers slash their prices at a record rate and mortgage rates drop following months of increases’ – Tim Ellis, Market Analyst
Tim Ellis is a housing market analyst with Redfin, and the entire article can be found here…
Activity
Leading indicators of homebuying activity, per Ellis:
- For the week ending July 7, 30-year mortgage rates fell to 5.3%—the largest 1-week drop since 2008. This was down from a 2022 high of 5.81% but up from 3.11% at the start of the year.
- Fewer people searched for “homes for sale” on Google—searches during the week ending July 2 were down 2% from a year earlier.
- The seasonally-adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index—a measure of requests for home tours and other home-buying services from Redfin agents—was down 15% year over year during the week ending July 3.
- Touring activity as of July 3 was down 14% from the start of the year, compared to a 7% increase at the same time last year, according to home tour technology company ShowingTime.
- Mortgage purchase applications were down 17% from a year earlier during the week ending July 1, while the seasonally-adjusted index was down 4% week over week.
“Conditions for homebuyers are improving. Housing remains expensive, but mortgage rates just posted their biggest weekly drop since 2008, which makes buying a home a bit more affordable,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “One way buyers can take advantage of the shift in the market is seeking concessions from sellers. That could include asking the seller to buy down your mortgage rate, pay for repairs or cover some of your closing costs.”
The Data
A few other key facts regarding today’s housing market, from Ellis’ analysis:
- The median home sale price was up 13% year over year to $396,000. This growth rate is down from the March peak of 16%.
- The median asking price of newly listed homes increased 15% year over year to $399,973, but was down 2.1% from the all-time high set during the four-week period ending June 5.
- New listings of homes for sale were down 1.4% from a year earlier.
- Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 2% year over year—the smallest decline since October 2019.
- 45% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, down from 49% a year earlier.
Also, pending home sales were down 13% year over year, the largest decline since May 2020.
On average, 7% of homes for sale each week had a price drop, a record high as far back as the data goes, through the beginning of 2015.
In Conclusion
Would you like to find out more? Contact me to discuss your current situation and how you might be able to take advantage of today’s market. It would be my pleasure to help you!
