Hope you all have a very Happy Holiday season!
Here is your market update for this month. In November, we saw the largest rate DROP in history with rates falling 0.6% overnight off of good inflation news and since then rates have come down even more. Despite the rate improvement, we are now facing the normal holiday slowdown which has been compounded by high rates based on recent years of living below 4% for a 30 year fixed. Because of how high the cost is for home ownership, buyers are pickier than ever. Buyers are choosing the homes in ready to move in condition over homes that need work and are willing to pay a little more for a turnkey home as the slightly higher payment seems more attainable to a buyer than saving up money to do the repairs themselves after closing escrow. Right now showings are few and far between compared to earlier this year. If we get 2 or 3 showings on a weekend, that is an immense success. That is about where we were in 2019 for activity when it would take 6-8 weeks to sell a home. Contrast is important, because there is a misconception that it is a buyer’s market when in reality this is a normal market. Homes are still selling, owning a home is still the American Dream, it’s just a different road to get to the finish line right now.
