This month (August, 2024) will bring lots of change to the real estate industry! You can read more about the changes here. I am dying to know how (if at all) these changes will affect the stats I watch each month. We won't know for a while if these changes will affect housing prices or days on market, so we will have to watch and see. For now, I will keep my eyes on the stats as they come out each month.
This past month, the average price for a single family month rose to $475,819. This is up from $465,462 in June and from $456,742 in July of 2023. Despite everything, prices are on the rise. This doesn't even take into account the lower interest rates that we've seen recently. Those lower rates won't factor into the stats for at least a month or two, since people take some time to find a house and then usually about a month to close on that house.
Days on market was up by just two days, from 45 in June to 47 in July. Anecdotally, too, I have heard from many agents that their listings are getting very slow traffic. Typically summer is a busy buying season here, but ever since March of 2020, I don't think we've really seen anything "typical" in the market. A year ago in July, 2023, days on market was just at 41, so things have slowed down somewhat in the past year.
Slightly fewer homes sold this past month compared to June, 1,053 compared to 1,095. We had almost the exact same number of home sales last July, 1,055! The market just has not changed a ton in the past year and inventory is still low, low, low. It is hard for buyers to find the right home and today's buyers are pickier than ever since they are paying top dollar, with both prices and interest rates. Many economic forecasters believe that lower interest rates will bring more inventory to the market, since people stuck in the 'golden handcuffs' of a 2% rate on their home will be more likely to sell when rates come down to around 5.5%. But that will also bring more buyers to the market.
If you're wondering when is the best time to buy in this market, the answer is, whenever you're ready! You can try to time the market and wait for interest rates to drop, but then prices might skyrocket as tons of buyers flock to buy homes. If you can buy now and comfortably afford the home you want, you can always refinance in the future if rates go down. At least you won't be stuck renting and paying someone else's mortgage!
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