Housing Market Meltdown May Be Behind Us, Economists Believe

Many economists and industry leaders believe that the worst housing market slump is behind us. Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, stated that the housing market was “stronger than anyone could have hoped” in January.

Even though a Yahoo! Finance piece claims that recovery won’t happen right away, there are some indications that a recovery is occurring, the article claimed, nevertheless. One group whose confidence increased in January was home builders.

Any spike in buyer interest is met with a response from builders. According to the story, Atlanta-based PulteGroup stated on a recent earnings call that it plans “a steady cadence of new starts” as it attempts to turn inventory routinely.

Others contend that mortgage rates themselves are an essential indicator. In a statement, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun predicted that as mortgage rates fall, sales will soon take up again.

Monthly Housing Market Trends Report for January 2023

The volume of homes for sale is increasing compared to last year as the time on the market reduces. However, home inventory is still below pre-pandemic levels, according to Realtor.com®’s January housing data. More significant annual losses in newly listed homes and pending home listings that had previously occurred have started to level off. A decline in the median home list price growth rate has also tapered, likely indicating a slower but steady housing market activity.

Although buyers have more options for discovering their dream house due to a slower pace of home sales and more inventory, overall prices are generally higher than they were a year ago, and interest rates are still making homes less affordable. Although market activity is still low due to affordability issues, sellers may benefit from a stabilized price hike.

In recap, 65.5% more houses are for sale compared to 2022. Since last year, there have been 13.1% more unsold homes, including those under contract. This year, there are 5.4% fewer homes posted for sale than last year, indicating that home sellers are less active. Homes are staying on the market for an average of 75 days, 13 more days than last year but still less time than before the pandemic. Only marginally less than in December, the median price of properties for sale grew by 8.1% annually in January.

To Get Hitched or To Get a Home

Two of the most expensive life milestones you’ll experience are getting married and buying a house. New research determined that one could cost you far more than the other, depending on where you live.

The personal finance website SmartAsset examined the median 13% downpayment on a home for the 150 largest cities in the country during the same period as the average cost of a wedding ($27,063, according to theweddingreport.com) and discovered that, on average, making a down payment on a home was more expensive. Most Southern cities, including Texas, Florida, Arkansas, and Louisiana, had the lowest average wedding expenses.

However, getting married will cost you more in nearly 20 cities. According to SmartAsset, this is the case for people in the Midwest and the Northeast towns. SmartAsset found a wedding in these five cities is, on average, more expensive than a down payment: Peoria, Illinois; Syracuse, New York; Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pennsylvania; Cleveland-Elyria, Ohio; and Rochester, New York.

 

Source:

Vaimberg, Ron. “Weekly Newsletter – January 6, 2023.” Ron Vaimberg International, Ron Vaimberg, 6 Jan. 2023, https://rvionline.thinkific.com/courses/take/rvi-weekly-newsletter/texts/41523497-weekly-newsletter-january-6-2023.