Is the market slowing down?

Market Shift or Summer Slump?

Is the market slowing down? The answer is yes, slightly from what I’m seeing – and reading as well. It seems to be moving from a frenzied seller’s market to a market that’s still favorable to sellers. It’s just a question of degree and that could partly be the summer slump that tends to happen every year as we near august.

Bidding Wars

But according to some pretty reliable resources there are signs of a shift in the market. According to redfin, there’s a decline in the number of offers facing competition with 72% of offers facing bidding wars in May compared to 65% in June.

And that pretty much squares with what I’ve seen. We just put a couple of homes we have listed under contract with only a couple of offers competing for the home as opposed to what was happening just a few months ago, with homes getting as much as 8-10 offers. The National Association of Realtors just reported a 2% drop in pending sales for existing homes from May to June of this year.

Home Prices

And the US census bureau reported that sales of new homes dropped 6. 6% in June compared to May. So what’s going om? You know, the cure for high prices is high prices because at some point the higher prices present an affordability problem for some buyers.

And that’s part of the reason the buying frenzy has slowed down a bit. According to realtor.com, home price growth is predicted to be in the single digits, not double digits by the end of the year. So prices are expected to keep climbing, but just at a decelerated rate. Inventory levels also play a role here as well.

Inventory Shortage

For the past couple of years, most housing markets across the country, including the Eastern Panhandle, have seen severe housing supply shortages. Plenty of home buyers out there – not enough properties to go around, but that appears to be changing a bit. According to a July 2021 report from Zillow – for sale inventory improved 3. 1% over may.

A Housing Crash?

So more homes are appearing on the market, a slowdown could result in fewer bidding wars so that it’s less of a struggle to buy a home. And it can also slow down the escalating home prices. And the operative word here is slow down. No one is predicting price drops or a housing crash.

No one reliable anyway. So while the real estate scene does appear to be slowing a bit into the latter part of 2021, we’re still in a seller’s market and we’re gonna be for a while. It’s just a question of degree. It will take some time before we see a truly balanced market.

If you’d like to check out the value of your home in this market, here’s a link where you can get a quick value and I’ll also do a more in depth report showing you comparable sold homes, days on market, price averages, tax assessments, all the information you need.