A report from KRQE on New Mexico. “The Albuquerque real estate market took off over the last two years, often forcing home buyers into a bidding war. But now that hot housing market is cooling off thanks to higher interest rates. Jessica Garcia is a realtor in Albuquerque and says, ‘There were very few homes on the market so every home that would come up you know you’d have 50 to 100 people fighting for that same home. Right now we have extra homes on the market.’”
Hawaii Real Estate Dreams. “Kona house inventory in the all price range category ‘swelled’ in June to 71. That was a 24-unit increase over April, or 34%! Condos and land availability stayed the same. This ‘change’ was even more significant when viewed as to what it did to the overall residential inventory that comprises houses and condos both. It went over 100 for the first time since February 2021. This is important since it reflects how much choice buyers have and ultimately how competitive the market gets. I believe this is the first in a sea of change coming in the next few months as interest rates reduce buyer enthusiasm.”
“Now house buyers under a million are still struggling to find something that meets their needs but their options ‘exploded’ in June, going from 6 available houses to 17 in a matter of a few weeks, almost a 200% increase.”
From ABC 15. “For months now, the Valley housing market has favored the seller. Any ‘for sale’ sign led to bidding wars. ‘With less people fighting over houses, there’s less multiple offers,’ said Sindy Ready with Arizona Association of Realtors. Even some sellers have had to come down on their initial asking price. For example, a home in Phoenix was listed at $565,000 was under contact at a $10,000 price reduction.”
“Ready said the sellers most impacted during this correction are those with more expensive homes — the ones listed at a million dollars or more. Ready says since the start of June, homes for sale in Scottsdale have dropped 8-10% in price.”
From Fox 5 in Nevada. “From waitlists to bidding wars, the hot housing market is seeing a cooling trend. ‘If we were talking even three months ago we were talking waitlists, and lotteries, and you know just incredible situations with people just wanting to get into that brand new home- that has changed overnight,’ said Jennifer Graff, founder of New Home Experts Las Vegas with Coldwell Banker.”
“The new home builders in Southern Nevada now have some inventory. ‘We have about 5,600 homes on the market right now that is almost double from last year,’ Graff said. She says if you can stay in the market there is opportunity. Sellers are more willing to negotiate. ‘We had 1,300 price decreases this past week,’ Graff said.”
From Gulf Shore Business. “Single-family homes were listed for sale in the heart of Southwest Florida’s market at a faster rate over the last three months than any other three-month period over the past decade. There were 4,117 homes listed in Lee County, 1,604 homes listed in Collier County and 2,203 listed in Charlotte County. Lee and Collier combined for 876 asking price decreases over the past seven days, and 206 properties came back on the market after being under contract, said real estate agent Ronnie Delfino. He saw 926 new listings on the market for those two counties compared to 737 homes that closed during the same time span.”
“‘For the last year or so you’ve seen more listings selling than pending than you would see new listings hitting the market,’ Delfino said. ‘Right now, we’re about 150 to 200 listings more than sold or pending in that seven-day period. So, you’re definitely starting to see it slow down a little bit.’ ‘Now, for the last seven days in Lee County, there’s a total of 425 new listings,’ real estate agent Denny Grimes said. ‘And in the same seven-day period, there were 396 that went pending. So, it’s just now turning. There are more new listings coming on the market than are coming off, which suggests the tide is turning on inventory. The other thing that we’re seeing is there were 409 price decreases and 43 price increases. There are almost 10 times more sellers saying they should cut their price. That’s not where it was six months ago.’”
Mansion Global on New York. “The week’s priciest deal was for a co-op at 1060 Fifth Avenue that had been asking $20 million after having been on and off the market since 2016 for as much as $65 million. ‘The housing frenzy at the start of 2021 through early May averaged 30+ contracts per week, but those flush days are likely now over due to a bearish stock market, a rise in interest rates, inflation and war,’ Olshan Realty president Donna Olshan wrote in the report.”
The Half Moon Bay Review. “After more than a year of soaring prices and hyper-competition, the Coastside’s housing market is showing signs of cooling. That is in step with markets across the state and country. In San Mateo County, the median price of the 467 single family homes sold in May 2022 was $2.08 million, 7.5 percent lower than last month, according to San Mateo County Association of Realtors.”
“Price reductions are increasing, local Realtors report. Kirsten Hagen, Realtor with Compass, says inventory is increasing to a level not seen in months and competition is dwindling. Homes are still typically selling in less than two weeks on the market, but with fewer bidders. In the past week, 11 new homes were listed from Pescadero to Montara, Hagen reported, much higher than in recent months. Redfin Real Estate’s analysis showed Half Moon Bay home prices down 14.8 percent from last May, though the average home sold 9 percent above list price.”
“David Oliphant, founder of Ocean Blue Real Estate and Realtor in Half Moon Bay, Santa Barbara and Fresno, predicts that the recent changes are signs that the market is returning to ‘normal.’ ‘I would still encourage buyers to get in the market because none of us know if interest rates are going to continue to go up or stabilize or come back down, and I certainly don’t think prices are going down anytime soon,’ said Oliphant.”
The Globe and Mail in Canada. “The stalemate that is taking hold in the Ontario real estate market right now arises from a belief that is becoming more entrenched each month: buyers reckon prices have farther to fall. House hunters see properties in some areas selling at 15 per cent or so below the high-water mark set in the first quarter and decide to hold off for an even steeper discount. Sellers either refuse to budge or feel the landscape shifting under them and rush to complete a transaction before more ground crumbles away.”
“John Lusink, president of Right at Home Realty, says sales for June are set to come in about 26-per-cent below even his conservative projections at the start of the year, continuing a trend that has been on a downward slope since February. ‘We can throw that forecast out the window,’ he says of his projections for 2022. The landscape is the same across the Right at Home network, which spans 12 regions of Ontario.”
“The number of listings, meanwhile, is gradually increasing after a slow spring, he adds. Mr. Lusink expects the final tally for Right at Home’s sales in June to show a 37-per-cent drop from the same month last year. ‘It’s, needless to say, concerning.’”
“In Burlington, Ont., real estate agent Tanya Rocca is already seeing homeowners preparing properties for sale before the fall market arrives. ‘It’s very busy right now,’ says the agent with Royal LePage Burloak Real Estate Services. ‘People are panicked.’ Ms. Rocca says prices in the area which have dropped between 12 and 15 per cent from the February peak. The average price of a freehold property dropped to $1.431-million in May in Burlington, she says, compared with the $1.51-million buyers were paying in April and the $1.6-million in February and March.”
“Some current sellers have been caught in the market transition, Ms. Rocca adds, because they bought a new property before selling an existing one. ‘Buyers, in fairness, are getting the power back – which they love,’ she says. ‘There are great opportunities out there because people need to sell.’”
“As the summer begins, it’s not uncommon to see listings sitting with 30 to 50 days on market, she adds. In the current environment, Ms. Rocca recommends setting a price near the realistic market value. She often ‘sharpens’ it a little bit to make it more attractive compared with other competing properties in the area. To help homeowners come to terms with the new reality, she stresses that first-quarter prices were the result of an overheated market – not an accurate reflection of value. ‘This is not money they’ve lost – they never had it.’”
From Reuters. “Two of Australia’s biggest home lenders jacked up fixed-rate home loans in line with increases to their own borrowing costs, spokespeople told Reuters, adding to pressure on a housing market which has hit the brakes. ‘It’s a sign of things to come in the variable rate market,’ said Brendan Coates, director of the Economic Policy Program at the Grattan Institute, a think tank. ‘What drove prices higher during Covid was in part the expectation that interest rates would remain low for longer. That’s the world that’s been turned on its head.’”
Stuff New Zealand. “There are more properties listed for rent nationwide than ever before, and the national median weekly rent fell for the first time this year, Trade Me’s latest figures show. In the Auckland and Wellington regions there were huge increases in supply last month, with their rental stock up 16% and 45% respectively from the same time last year. Auckland property manager Tina Dunsmuir, from Professionals Onehunga, said there were so many available rental listings, her firm was struggling to rent properties, and it had become a ‘tenant’s market.’”
“Most rentals are sitting vacant for between four and eight weeks before they are re-tenanted, and levels of inquiry have plummeted. ‘This is the first time we have seen rent declining to amounts below what the previous tenant was paying, just to make the home attractive for a new tenant.’”
From China Daily. “Chinese realty developers are coming up with unusual promotional campaigns to revive home sales and mitigate pressure from excess housing inventory amid a market slump. Seazen Holdings Co Ltd announced on Tuesday it will offer up to 100,000 yuan ($14,920) to pay for farmers’ watermelons to encourage them to buy apartments in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. A few days ago, Central China Real Estate Ltd offered farmers as much as 160,000 yuan to buy their wheat. The money can be used toward down payments for apartments that the company developed in Shangqiu, Henan province. The company also offered to buy garlic from growers to encourage them to buy apartments in Kaifeng, another city in Henan.”
“However, it is necessary to ensure such promotions are not misused to circumvent government restrictions on lowering real estate prices beyond healthy levels, said Yan Yuejin, research director at the E-House China R&D Institute, a Shanghai-based agency that mainly studies realty.”