{"id":1048,"date":"2022-08-11T19:10:02","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T19:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/11\/an-astonishing-look-at-americas-new-buyer-friendly-housing-market-and-how-sellers-may-ruin-it\/"},"modified":"2022-08-11T19:10:02","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T19:10:02","slug":"an-astonishing-look-at-americas-new-buyer-friendly-housing-market-and-how-sellers-may-ruin-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/11\/an-astonishing-look-at-americas-new-buyer-friendly-housing-market-and-how-sellers-may-ruin-it\/","title":{"rendered":"An Astonishing Look at America\u2019s New \u2018Buyer-Friendly\u2019 Housing Market\u2014and How Sellers May Ruin It"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Getty Images<\/p>\n

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America\u2019s housing market has been brutal on homebuyers for the past two years\u2014but at long last, signs suggest that the worst of it might be over.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019s the Housing Market This Week?\u201d is our weekly column where we deliver the most up-to-date statistics on the four big bellwethers of the housing market: home prices, number of new listings, total days on the market, and mortgage rates. And for the week ending Aug. 6<\/a>, these critical variables show that the tables are turning in favor of homebuyers more than sellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe housing market is resetting in a buyer-friendly direction,\u201d\u00a0notes Realtor.com\u00ae Chief Economist Danielle Hale<\/strong> in her analysis.<\/p>\n

Granted, a \u201cbuyer-friendly direction\u201d does not<\/em> mean we are anywhere near\u00a0a true-blue buyer\u2019s market<\/a>. The seller\u2019s market<\/a> that has raged since the COVID-19 pandemic is still going strong, but all signs say the clock is ticking<\/a> and its\u00a0days are numbered.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why, with crucial intel to help both homebuyers<\/a> and sellers<\/a> stay on top of the highly dynamic world of real estate today.<\/p>\n

Weekly housing trends.<\/p>\n

Realtor.com<\/p>\n

The surprisingly good news hiding in rising home prices<\/h2>\n

The latest July data from Realtor.com places the median home price<\/a> nationwide at $449,000. And, for the week ending Aug. 6, listing prices rose by 15.5% over that same week last year.<\/p>\n

While this marks the 34th straight week of double-digit price growth, the good news hiding within the bad is it\u2019s also the \u201csecond consecutive week of deceleration,\u201d points out Hale.<\/p>\n

For the week ending July 23, home prices rose by 16.6%, followed by 15.6% the week ending July 30. So this week\u2019s relatively temperate 15.5% hike offers hope that home price growth might continue dwindling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe improvement has been substantial,\u201d says Hale. But she\u2019s quick to point out that \u201cbuyers in today\u2019s market may still face meaningful affordability challenges as the typical home listing price remains near a record high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sticker shock, however, is not stopping truly determined house hunters from forging ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersistent homeowners may still continue to find success,\u201d says Hale. \u201cSecond quarter data showed that homeownership rates increased from a year ago, both overall and for nearly every age and racial and ethnic group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that homeownership rates have actually surged\u2014amid rampant inflation, rising mortgage rates, and other deterrents\u2014is proof that tenacious homebuyers who stick with it do eventually prevail. This is particularly true if they\u2019re willing to widen their home search to more remote areas beyond where they\u2019d imagined they could (or would want to) live pre-pandemic, places where it isn\u2019t so hard to own a home and make ends meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne factor driving the success of home shoppers is an incredibly strong labor market that is pushing up wages and giving workers the ability to negotiate remote or hybrid working arrangements, even as in-person work is growing more common,\u201d says Hale. \u201cWith flexible work arrangements still available, home shoppers are able to consider homes farther afield of the office, in the more affordable suburbs or even in a new, less expensive state altogether, enacting their own personal plan to combat cost-of-living increases.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a true testament to the lengths that homebuyers are willing to go today\u2014that is, as long as sellers are willing to meet them halfway.<\/p>\n

How home sellers are undermining today\u2019s \u2018buyer-friendly\u2019 market<\/h2>\n

Of course, what\u2019s good for homebuyers is bad for home sellers\u2014many of whom are panicked they\u2019ve missed the peak<\/a> of the market and are calling off their plans to sell at all.<\/p>\n

For the week ending July 30, the number of new listings on the market dropped by 8% year over year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew listings fell from a year ago for a fourth week,\u201d says Hale. \u201cThis is looking more and more like sellers may be wary of current market conditions, which have shifted substantially, even though they remain quite favorable to sellers who have owned for just about any length of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while overall inventory (of new and old listings) grew by 28% over this same week last year, \u201cthe active listings count still trails its 2020 and 2019 levels by more than 15% and 45%, respectively,\u201d says Hale. \u201cMore improvement in active inventory is likely needed to bring balance, but the recent trend may be at risk if homeowner attitudes toward selling now continue to deteriorate.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if home sellers continue to drop out of the market in droves, homebuyers will have fewer properties to purchase and might get dragged back into the rabid seller\u2019s market they\u2019ve just escaped.<\/p>\n

Why homebuyers aren\u2019t rushing to close the deal<\/h2>\n

In July, listings lingered on the market a mere 34 days before getting snapped up\u2014nearly half the time it took two years earlier. Yet now that we\u2019ve entered the lazy days of August, homebuyers are at long last pumping the breaks and not feeling in such a rush.<\/p>\n

For the week ending Aug. 6, properties spent three extra days on the market compared with this time last year, showing a second consecutive week of a slowdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect more slowing ahead as the housing market resets,\u201d Hale predicts.<\/p>\n

Mortgage rates rose<\/h2>\n

According to Freddie Mac<\/a>, for the week ending Aug. 11, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 5.22%, a steep spike from the previous week\u2019s 4.99%.<\/p>\n

As for what the future brings, that will hinge in part on whether swirling rumors of a looming recession prompt companies to roll out layoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big question for consumers is whether companies will over-react to the recession concerns and start trimming payrolls,\u201d explains Realtor.com Senior Economist George Ratiu<\/strong> in a recent analysis<\/a>. \u201cA sharp pullback in hiring could have a direct impact on people\u2019s ability to keep spending, especially with today\u2019s high inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, homebuyers may want to take full advantage of this buyer-friendly market while it lasts.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Watch: Will Buying a Home Get Even More Expensive? Another Interest Rate Hike Has Buyers Scrambling<\/strong><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The post An Astonishing Look at America\u2019s New \u2018Buyer-Friendly\u2019 Housing Market\u2014and How Sellers May Ruin It<\/a> appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com\u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getty Images America\u2019s housing market has been brutal on homebuyers for the past two years\u2014but at long last, signs suggest that the worst of it might be over. \u201cHow\u2019s the Housing Market This Week?\u201d is our weekly column where we deliver the most up-to-date statistics on the four big bellwethers of the housing market: home…Read More→<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}