A report from Market Watch. “Daryl Fairweather — Redfin’s chief economist, who also worked at the Boston Fed says we’re seeing early signs that the housing market is starting to cool, at least in pricey coastal metros. ‘Buyers in markets like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Seattle who have lost out on several bidding wars may find they’re facing less competition from other buyers than they were a month or two ago,’ says Fairweather.”
From Fox Business. “Real estate agent and Bravo’s ‘Million Dollar Listing’ star Kirsten Jordan signaled the market is entering ‘very murky territory.’ ‘There are sellers who got super, super overzealous. They were so excited about these numbers, and they thought that this was their opportunity to really make a killing. And now, they’ve gotten excited about maybe going out there and changing their lifestyle and buying something different, even if it’s downsizing, and it’s time to get realistic on pricing.’”
The Real Deal. “Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman believes a shift is coming. ‘Rates are probably six percent, inventories are increasing, sales volume will be somewhat fine, but prices are going to soften,’ Kelman said. ‘Buyers are saying ‘I’ve had enough’ and sellers are starting to freak out a little bit,’ Kelman said.”
From Yahoo Money. “If you bought a home during the pandemic, there’s a good chance you think you paid too much. Over one-third (36%) of buyers who closed on a home during the last two years believe they overpaid, according to a survey by Money and Morning Consult. That’s twice the percentage of those who purchased a home two to nine years ago and feel like they overpaid (18%), and more than double the rate of those who bought 10 or more years ago and think they paid more then they needed (14%).”
“Kurt Grosse, a realtor with Realty One Group in Las Vegas, was helping his daughter and her husband look to trade in their two-story house for a one-story home because their child has spina bifida, and they needed more space and easier access to outdoor spaces.After six months of competing against other buyers and multiple losing bids, they finally found a home last July that suited their needs. Not willing to let this one get away, Grosse’s daughter decided to offer $50,000 over the asking price and was able to purchase the home. After closing, they found out their offer was the only one made on the property. ‘In this case, it was worth the risk of over-offering for the house,’ says Grosse.”
From WINK News in Florida. “Snowbirds are heading home and that could have a positive impact on the housing market. Real estate agents say the market is starting to stabilize. We can’t miss the signs, traffic is better and we can get a seat in a restaurant. Most snowbirds have gone home for the first time in a while. ‘There are certainly signs of stabilization, for sure,’ said Jenny Moorhead, owner of Cornerstone Coastal Properties. Moorhead said demand is down, but not really. ‘And by that, I mean, there’s not 10 or 15 offers, there might be three or four that you’re competing with,’ said Moorhead.”
“The median price of a home in Lee County is now $499,000. In Collier County, that numbers $850,000. WINK News asked Rick Haas with Marzucco Real Estate about the prices of homes. ‘Price is starting to reduce; the only bad thing is rates are starting to go up. So, I tell buyers, now’s the time to buy and refinance in a couple of years,’ said Haas.”
The Dallas Morning News in Texas. “Dallas-Fort Worth has been seeing a dramatic increase in homes up for sale over the last few weeks as many sellers look to take advantage of the market while it’s still red hot. The number of active home listings the week of May 21 spiked 41.6% from a year earlier, the fifth consecutive week of gains, according to Realtor.com. Until April, the company had posted supply declines in D-FW every week since March 2020.”
“Mark Wolfe, broker and owner of Re/Max DFW Associates, said he has seen a significant spike in listings over the past few months. In his home city of Coppell, he said, there would have been only about five or six homes on the market at any one time a few months ago. In just five days earlier this month, he said, 21 homes went up for sale.”
“‘We’ve been a boom economy, and now with the economy showing signs of trouble, people want to still get the most for their dollar while they can if they think that the prices might go down,’ Wolfe said. ‘I don’t know if that’s going to happen. I doubt that’s going to happen.’”
KPIX 5 in California. “Realtors say the Bay Area’s housing market is experiencing a mild slowdown resulting in homes remaining for sale longer, giving would-be buyers a slight edge. ‘You should expect to see houses on the market for about 12, 15 days. A lot of my buyers are asking me, ‘Is there something wrong with the house?’ I told them, ‘Look there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the house. It’s just that the market is a little bit slower,’ said Sonia Vu with NextHome Lifestyles.”
“So, what’s the root cause? Realtors say as interest rates go up, the price of homes buyers can afford goes down. ‘I had clients who used to be able to qualify for $1.7M, $1.8M. But because of the interest rate increase, they now can only buy at $1.4M.’ Vu told KPIX 5. Some realtors say the market has reached an equilibrium of sorts. It’s not strictly a sellers’ or a buyers’ market, but somewhere in the middle.”
The Toronto Star in Canada. “Many homeowners have used HELOCs to make investments on a second property — allowing a homeowner to take out a second mortgage. But often times it uses a variable rate mortgage, not fixed. ‘As prices start to fall, are you going to find over-leveraged multibuyers unable to afford those increased payments? Will it bring more supply to the market? I think it’s an underrated possibility,’ said Eric Lombardi, housing advocate and founder of More Neighbours Toronto.”
“For those who have less income it isn’t the best time to buy property, Murtaza Haider, professor of data science and real estate management at Toronto Metropolitan University added. If home prices drop further, when it comes time to the closing date, appraisals can come back tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars short, leaving people scrambling to pay the difference or risk losing their deposit. ‘If this happens to someone who doesn’t earn a higher salary, they’re put in an incredibly tough position to make up for the shortfall,’ Haider said.’”
The Telegraph. “Property sellers in southern England are being forced to cut asking prices by 10pc as the housing market slows, while vendors in other regions have slashed values by as much as a fifth. The biggest discounts were concentrated in the markets that recorded the steepest house price growth in the last two years. Vendors in these areas are now slashing prices by nearly 20pc. Sarah Coles, of Hargreaves Lansdown, a fund shop, said: ‘Reality is starting to dawn in the housing market, as overly-optimistic sellers are being forced to knock tens of thousands of pounds off their asking prices.’”
From Voxy on New Zealand. “Homeowners are set to take a severe hit due to Labour’s economic mismanagement, with borrowers wearing the cost of the fight to control inflation, National’s Housing Spokesperson Chris Bishop says. ‘This will mean a major hit for Kiwi budgets. A household that has borrowed $700,000 would face annual interest costs of $42,000, meaning they would have to pay more than $800 a week before they even begin to reduce the actual loan.’”
“‘The pressure will be especially great for those who have recently entered the property market, with the Reserve Bank acknowledging that many first time buyers from 2021 will find it difficult to pay their mortgages and cover their other expenses. Kiwis are already paying more to cover their loans than they have in a long time. According to the Reserve Bank, the share of disposable income required to service a new mortgage is approaching 60 per cent, the highest it has been since before the Global Financial Crisis, under the Clark Government.’”
From News.com.au on Australia. “All staff members from a Gold Coast company were called into a board room meeting at lunch time on Thursday. By the time they left the room, they were all unemployed. All 15 of them were terminated on the spot after the company, Pivotal Homes, became the latest casualty in Australia’s struggling construction sector.The managing director, Michael Irwin, publicly announced just hours later that the organisation had gone into liquidation, citing rising labour and construction costs as the reason it was impossible to carry on. Staff had no warning that the business was doing badly, nor were they given any notice that they should start looking for jobs.”
“Tom Egan, the head sales manager for Pivotal Homes, said he and a dozen or so other staff members were ‘devastated’ by the company’s sudden collapse. ‘No one knew,’ Mr Egan, who has worked in the construction sector for 25 years, told news.com.au. ‘At 1.30pm [on Thursday] everyone was called to the boardroom. The liquidator advised that we were terminated. It’s devastating for everybody, you had staff there [who had been working for] up to 10 years.’”
“Dozens of angry customers have contacted Mr Egan demanding answers, even though he no longer works for the company. He said anyone left out of pocket from the collapse should get in touch with the liquidators, Chris Cook and James Robba of Worrell’s.”