{"id":1147,"date":"2022-09-06T20:31:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T20:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/06\/economists-have-a-strange-new-buzzword-for-the-housing-market-that-will-shock-buyers-and-sellers\/"},"modified":"2022-09-06T20:31:43","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T20:31:43","slug":"economists-have-a-strange-new-buzzword-for-the-housing-market-that-will-shock-buyers-and-sellers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/06\/economists-have-a-strange-new-buzzword-for-the-housing-market-that-will-shock-buyers-and-sellers\/","title":{"rendered":"Economists Have a Strange New Buzzword for the Housing Market That Will Shock Buyers and Sellers"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

MLS via Realtor.com<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The housing market has been called plenty of things this summer: red-hot<\/em>, insane<\/em>, brutal<\/em>. But the latest word du jour<\/em> to describe the state of real estate today is almost shocking in its tepidness: balanced<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This term cropped up most recently in an analysis by Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu<\/strong>, who notes, \u201cOur weekly data<\/a> suggests that the U.S. housing market keeps progressing toward a more balanced market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many economists of late have remarked on the market\u2019s more even-keel turn.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cSelling prices will level out as the market cools but this cooling is just a return to the type of balanced market that has been absent the past couple of years.\u201d
\n\u2013 Greg McBride<\/strong>, chief financial analyst at Bankrate<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat goes up, must eventually moderate\u2026 As some buyers pull back from the market due to affordability and supply constraints and as new construction adds more supply, house prices will moderate, resulting in a more balanced housing market.\u201d
\n\u2013 Mark Fleming<\/strong>, chief economist at First American<\/p>\n

\u201cThe early 2022 enthusiasm that homeowners had toward selling is evaporating as the housing market rebalances.\u201d
\n\u2013 Danielle Hale<\/strong>, Realtor.com chief economist<\/p>\n

But what does a balanced housing market actually look like\u2014and mean\u2014for buyers and sellers?<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, \u201cbalance\u201d means that the raging seller\u2019s market<\/a> that\u2019s dominated since the COVID-19 pandemic is slowly shifting<\/a>\u2014not into full buyer\u2019s market<\/a> territory, but toward a middle ground that puts buyers and sellers on more even footing.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more to it than just that, and our weekly column \u201cHow\u2019s the Housing Market This Week?<\/a>\u201d can help shed light on these nuances by delving into the latest real estate statistics for the week ending Aug. 20.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what balance looks like\u2014in terms of home prices, number of new listings, and more\u2014so both buyers<\/a> and sellers<\/a> can better navigate this new normal of real estate today.<\/p>\n

Weekly housing market update.<\/p>\n

Realtor.com<\/p>\n

Homes are lingering on the market longer<\/h2>\n

Over the past two years, the pace of real estate sales<\/a> has sped up significantly. Nationally, homes are on the market a median 35 days before getting snapped up. But this rush is waning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the week ending Aug. 20, properties spent four extra days on the market compared with this time last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a fourth week in a row, homes are sitting on the market for a longer time than last year,\u201d adds Xu. \u201cAs both buyers and sellers adjust to the rebalancing market, expectations shift, reducing the sense of urgency in the market and reinforcing the trend toward longer sale timelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home sellers are less eager to list<\/h2>\n

While today\u2019s homebuyers are less gung-ho to sprint to the closing table, home sellers are also dragging their feet to the market. For the week ending Aug. 20, the number of new listings dropped by 12% from a year earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week marks a seventh straight week of year-over-year declines in the number of new listings coming up for sale, and a second consecutive week with double-digit declines,\u201d notes Xu.<\/p>\n

This newfound reluctance to list not only means buyers have fewer fresh listings to peruse, but it could also throw the market\u2019s rebalancing progress off-kilter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis pullback from sellers could slow the speed at which the housing market rebalances,\u201d says Xu. \u201cBuyers looking for more bargaining power may need patience.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Watch: 10 U.S. Markets Where Home Sales Are Slowing<\/strong><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Home prices are still high<\/h2>\n

The deep irony in listing skittishness is this: Sellers still stand to make bank, since home prices continue to soar through the roof.<\/p>\n

Currently, property asking prices clock in at a median of $449,000<\/a> nationwide. And for the week ending Aug. 20, home prices shot up by 14.4% over that same time period last year.<\/p>\n

To give you a sense of how far this sum has come, prices have climbed by double<\/em>-digit percentages for 36 weeks<\/em> straight. As Xu points out, \u201cHome equity remains at a record high.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the clock seems to be ticking, which means there\u2019s some good news for buyers, too: Despite high home prices, Xu says, \u201cmore of the usual seasonal price slowdown is ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mortgage rates are up<\/h2>\n

For the week ending Aug. 25, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage shot up to 5.55% from the previous week\u2019s 5.13%, according to Freddie Mac.<\/a><\/p>\n

This is grim news for buyers, since it means that financing a home today is much more expensive than it was a year earlier. As Xu puts it, \u201cThe costs of purchasing today\u2019s typical home [is] up more than 50% compared to a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

And perhaps herein lies the reason behind sellers\u2019 growing reluctance to list: If they have to buy a new home, it means they\u2019ll have to lock in a new loan at today\u2019s higher interest rates, which could quickly eat away at any windfall their home sale may bring. And so, as Xu points out,\u00a0with \u201cnearly three-quarters of today\u2019s potential sellers also planning to buy another home, it seems that more homeowners are deciding to stay put.\u201d<\/p>\n

And maybe that\u2019s not such a bad idea. Moving is not a process to be rushed, and a more deliberate, level-headed, and balanced<\/em> housing market may do us all a world of good.<\/p>\n\n

The post Economists Have a Strange New Buzzword for the Housing Market That Will Shock Buyers and Sellers<\/a> appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com\u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MLS via Realtor.com The housing market has been called plenty of things this summer: red-hot, insane, brutal. But the latest word du jour to describe the state of real estate today is almost shocking in its tepidness: balanced. This term cropped up most recently in an analysis by Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu, who notes, \u201cOur…Read More→<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1147","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\/1147","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=1147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}