Monday Market Matters

Hello again…it is HALLOWEEN, October 31, 2022, and The Souza Team was up early dressing our daughter in her Wonder Woman costume this morning. We plan to be out in the neighborhood this evening making wonderful memories. We hope you get to celebrate the holiday in whatever fashion you choose.

We’re delivering a ‘Spooky’ edition of Monday Market Matters because it is that day of the week when we look at the behavior of the housing market, and leading indicators of market trends, both in the U.S. …and locally… for the past week.

Welp, it’s Halloween and the available inventory of homes for sale is still climbing nationally and into November when inventory is usually declining. Home Inventory continues to climb as buyers remain at a standstill. Today, there are 577,000 single-family homes on the market… Up 0.9% from last week!

Once rates crossed above 6%, inventory resumed climbing, and our count of pending sales started falling quickly. There are 340,000 single-family homes in contract right now. That’s down 2% and 27% fewer homes in contract today than last year at this time…

We have fewer new listings too, but not a lot fewer. Sellers are mostly on the sidelines. Many sellers who were on the market did not have to sell and therefore could retreat to the sidelines. The New Listing volume shows signs of new construction finally being completed after the pandemic delays. If the New Listing volume climbs above recent years, that would be another bearish signal for the market outlook for 2023.

The median price of single-family homes in the US ticked down as expected this week to $425,000. It is likely to expect this to be $400k by the end of the year, which is only two months away. The Jan/Feb period is when we normally/historically have a jump in prices and that period is what is in question.

Price reductions are continuing unabated. 43% of the homes on the market have had a price adjustment improvement, as we in the industry like to say. What’s worse, it hasn’t topped out yet. Normally at this time of the year, the market starts to clean up loose ends before the holidays as the market tends to slow down. It’s been 8 weeks since rates jumped.

So here we are rolling into November and inventory is still climbing.S

o… The question is…for the third week in a row…

Has housing inventory peaked for the year? We will find out in next week’s Monday Market Matters’.

Closing thoughts:

I truly believe that Crystal and I are two of the most highly and thoroughly trained agents in your market. We pay to be coached each week by Mike Ferry, the #1 Real Estate Trainer in the world. I have been training under Mike Ferry for 36 years. For the last 6 months, we have studied how an agent needs to guide clients through this changing market, and how to help the client understand the market so the client can make the correct decisions to be successful and reach their intended goals.

I’m amazed at the number of expired listings I see each day, which means that the seller wasn’t able to get their intended result because they did not have a strong agent to help pull things together. We are those strong agents that will make sure our clients succeed.

When our clients succeed, everyone wins.

As your Real Estate Market Experts, Crystal and I work hard to study the market and bring a deep understanding of the market’s complexities, a lengthy list of qualified buyers, and access to off-market opportunities, to you…and… at the precise time that you need it. It’s important for you as a homeowner or a home buyer to have the most current information and understanding of the market at that moment.

Crystal and I take great care to study the market to be able to translate what it means and how it affects your real estate decisions.

This is our job, our passion and we’re excited to share it with you, whether it’s a question you have or for an upcoming decision. We are here to help…Let’s talk before you make any decisions.

Until next week…stay safe… and happy trails to you…

Warmly, Dean

Dean & Crystal Souza

Realtor | Broker Associate

Century 21 RE Alliance – Souza Team

homes@souzateam.com

916-805-8668 /510-881-1761

DRE 00967442 | 01448392

Focused on the Success of Your Move