I recently sat down with Joy Edwards Brown on our podcast to talk about the shifting market.
A few notes on this shift and then what it means:
-Interest rates are up in the last 3 months from the low 3’s, to around 6% (although rates have dipped this week into the 5’s).
-Inventory was down to under a 1 month supply for the first quarter of the year. That means more homes were selling then coming on the market.
-As we have entered into the summer season, we are seeing more inventory (which is typical in the summer), but the increase in rates has lowered the intensity of the market. Inventory has now increased to a 2 month supply in Bellingham, and a 2.6 month supply in Whatcom County.
-Home prices have went from a steady increase to flatlining over the last month.
This is generally good news. Home prices could not continue to go up at the rate they were. And although rates have gone up, the increased selection and slight slow down is giving buyers a chance to actually shop homes and take a breathe and consider things for a second. We are also seeing an increase in buyers being able to make offers again with normal contingencies instead of scrambling to wave everything.
But the Bellingham market remains relatively hot. And in the low to mid price ranges, it is still generally a sellers market. Also most of the metrics and experts are not predicting homes prices to actually drop in the next 12 months.
Never the less it’s getting back to what we would consider “normal” in the way we practiced Real Estate previous to the last 2 years. And that is what Joy and I discussed below.
Watch here:
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