This Crazy Real Estate Market

What kind of crazy real estate market are we in? Are we in a buyer’s market, a sellers market, or no one’s market? Are buyers reluctant to buy, are sellers reluctant to sell, and are tenants preparing to buy or are they content in their current situation?

Here’s the scoop: Inventory is low, housing prices are up, interest rates are high, or I should say, higher. Yes, interest rates have gone up. Right now, they’re around 8% but depending on your credit score it could be higher or lower which is why it’s important to have a very good credit score. If you’re not sure what your credit score is, reach out to us, we can help. But don’t wait. We’ll help you get to where you want to be but you must start now. If you do, you’ll be that much further along in a month, six months, a year and five years from now.

Low inventory, higher sale prices and interest rates are all causing market stagnation. So yes, buyers are reluctant to buy and some buyers are having a difficult time qualifying for financing due to higher housing prices, higher interest rates and/or other factors. Sellers are reluctant to sell for fear that when they sell their home they won’t be able to find another home in time. Rentals have sky-rocketed like never before. I read quite a while ago that rising rental prices was the result of the 2008 market crash and foreclosures.

Historically speaking, interest rates aren’t that high these day, so please…resist all the hype that you hear in the news media. It’s not as though we’re at an all-time high. We’re not. We’ve been spoiled by the extremely low interest rates in the 3’s. Those interest rates were never intended to be here long term. In a healthy real estate market we should see interest rates at around the 5%-6% range and we hope that rates will settle down sooner than later. We can hope.

If anyone remembers the early 1980’s, consumers were paying around 16%. Now that’s high.