There is rampant speculation that home prices must come down to compensate for higher rates. But there is another solution. Fewer sales. We learned a couple of lessons during the peak covid days: Sellers don't have to sell - they can wait it out. When they do, the...
Slow Unwind
The Slow Unwind – The Pricing Gap
The new market conditions will bear some resemblance to the past, but to believe that real estate sales will be 'getting back to normal' some day would be full of false hope. Rob Dawg said it long ago - we need to abandon all previous assumptions. Let's start with...
The Slow Unwind – Quality of Inventory
I mentioned that we could be seeing a pause in the market, and for prospective home buyers, there are plenty of reasons to take a rest: Mortgage rates starting with a 5, not a three. The S&P 500 and Dow are down 15.9% and 11.3%, year-to-date. The list prices of...
The Slow Unwind – Price Reductions
Imagine the pricing quagmire we are in. The homes on the market today were priced according to comps from 1-4 months ago, which were the craziest-priced sales in the history of real estate. To make matters worse, sellers are naturally drawn to the highest-priced sales...
The Slow Unwind
Even though real estate is local, the homebuyer psychology tends to be similar across the country - mostly because people are people, and have similar reactions to every variable. When they see mortgage rates go from 3% to 5.5% in less than six months, it's only...