Housing Marking Updates
Rob Breese, VP General Sales Manager
RE/MAX 200 Realty | RE/MAX Town & Country Realty
Here’s our weekly briefing on all thing’s real estate! Remember, better informed agents educate their clients not to listen to all the negative news media.
- Recession signs are everywhere, and inflation keeps moving lower, indicating lower mortgage rates ahead.
- Leading economic indicators have now declined for 10 straight months. A telltale sign of recession.
- NAR’s REALTORS® Confidence Index (RCI) survey for January reveals a market that remains a surprisingly tight seller’s market, with 57% of listings selling in less than a month, with an average of 2.2 offers. For Sale Inventory levels remain quite low. Educate your sellers to take note that it’s still a great time to sell! WE NEED LISTINGS!!!
- Mortgage applications rose 7% for the third straight week of January…WOW!!!!!
- NAR’s December existing home sales data fell 34% YOY as a result of 7% + interest rates in October and November plus the return of seasonality to the market after disappearing during the pandemic.
- Transaction activity was cut in half for the second half of 2022, 5.1 million units were sold in 2022. The last time we were at that level was 2018—not a disaster by any means.
- Inventory levels dropped below 1 million in 2022. These numbers show that the FED strategy really did slow the market bringing inflation down. Activity will pick up in the coming months as inflation rates fall. All in all, it’s good news.
- Economist Barry Habib expects inflation to further ease in coming months and drop interest rates further into the low to mid 5% range.
- Interest rates are currently at 6.18%. Better days are coming!!
- ATTOM’s 2022 Home Sales Report says despite a cooling housing market from mortgage interest rates rising in order to fight inflation, home sellers still had an amazing return in 2022. Top five cities nationally were led by No. 1 Tampa, FL with a 21.9% rate of return and No. 4 Orlando at 17.7%.
Remember to talk to your clients and focus their attention to the fact that it’s a great time to sell—and a good time to buy. We can’t close deals without a large, growing, and engaged prospect base.
EDUCATE your SOI about the TRUE Market Realities!
