Our real estate market has been so good for so long that the recent slowdown in home sales and price dip has caught many sellers and a few agents by surprise.
Buyers are always the first to sense when the market is changing. That’s likely because they are constantly on the internet searching for homes and keeping track of sales activity. Sellers are the last to admit the market has changed. They continue to base their pricing on where the market has been. Buyers make decisions based on where the market and prices are headed.
Looking back, the market has favored sellers. Looking forward, maybe not so much.
Since 2011 county home prices and sales have been steadily increasing. Sellers have been receiving multiple offers and buyers have struggled to land a home in escrow. That market intensity ended last year when the Federal Reserve began increasing interest rates and the market hasn’t picked up momentum since. We have been experiencing slower year-over-year sales, flat prices and tepid homebuying interest. Last week the state Legislative Analyst’s Office officially called California’s real estate market “weak” based on data from Zillow, the California Association of Realtors and Moody’s Analytics.
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