A report from Politico. “Lobbyists are scrambling to get help from Washington to goose the housing market as demand tanks in response to rising interest rates and high prices. ‘Next year is going to be chaos,’ said National Housing Conference CEO David Dworkin, who believes tax legislation has a shot before 2023.”
From Bisnow. “Investors who drove record activity buying up rental properties in Sun Belt cities are facing a new threat to their revenues: increased property taxes. Single-family rental landlord American Homes 4 Rent said in its earnings report that it expects its property taxes at its Texas properties to climb by more than 20% this year. Matthew Haines, a north Texas landlord who has three apartment complexes and several single-family rental properties, said that his taxes have doubled during the last four years. Haines said he is selling a 60-unit building he owns.”
“‘We can’t make money with it anymore,’ Haines told Bloomberg. ‘Seven days a week, my wife and I are trying to keep our heads above water.’”
Colorado Public Radio. “Home prices in Colorado Springs continue to show signs that the market is cooling amidst persistent inflation and spiking mortgage interest rates. The median price of a single family home in the Springs to set all-time records month after month in the first half of the year, topping out at $495,000 in June. That price dropped back down to $460,000 in September before ticking up another $5,000 to $465,000 in October. ‘I think that we are going to see an exit of a certain number of realtors that might have gotten into the business at the uptick in the market after COVID,’ said Ann Kidd, chair of the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors. ‘When they realize it isn’t just putting the sign in the yard and collecting the contracts I think … some of them will be exiting and looking for work that is more [reliable] for their families.’”
From WXYZ in Michigan. “After one of the hottest housing markets in years, we’re now seeing a shift. Michael Perna, a realtor with Keller Williams, said it’s still a seller’s market, but sellers are starting to offer concessions again. ‘We’re seeing the luxury market come in below asking price for the majority of the sales. We’re seeing sellers — over 10% of sellers are picking up buyers’ closing costs now, and we’re seeing the market really normalize and even out,’ he said.”
The Daily Montanan. “The median price of a home in Bozeman is $932,317, but in 2021, household income was just $59,695, according to the Bozeman Real Estate Group and U.S. Census, respectively. A rough estimate based on yearly income of $60,000, given current interest rates, would mean that an average Montanan family would be able to afford a house around $275,000. In Missoula, the median price of a home is at $525,000, as it has been for roughly seven months, said Brint Wahlberg, vice president of the Missoula Organization of Realtors. By comparison, it was $350,000 in 2020.”
“The median residential price in Billings is $412,832, said Billings Association of Realtors President Dennis Cook, but the market appears to be softening. Some sellers are dropping their asking prices, but he said the downward trend doesn’t mean it’s easy for buyers given the interest rates. ‘It makes for a pretty hefty price still even at that,’ Cook said.”
The Marietta Daily Journal in Georgia. “Gone are the days when a house would have multiple offers within hours of being listed, some of them well over asking price. But caught between persistently low inventory and high prices, and now, rising mortgage rates, a lack of affordability remains the elephant in the room in Cobb’s housing market. ‘That price point (for first-time buyers) used to be in the 200s,’ said Hicks Malonson, a broker with Harry Norman Realtors in Marietta. ‘Not anymore. And my rate-sensitive buyers have said, ‘Yep, I get it. I am not paying that price at that rate.’”
“One change over last year is that the average sale price ($483,000) has dropped below the average list price ($489,000), suggesting the bidding wars of the pandemic market are past. Johnny Sinclair, a Realtor with Ansley Real Estate, said during his 18 years in the business, Marietta’s typically had around 150 available single-family homes within the city limits. ‘During the red-hot thing, it got down to as low as 23, which was unheard of. You’ve never had that,’ Sinclair said. ‘It has risen back up, but it’s staying steady around 70 … a lot of those houses are houses that have been on the market for a while. They’re kind of the leftovers.’”
WLBT in Mississippi. “The once chaotic buyer’s housing market has taken a turn due to sky-high mortgage rates. Along with establishing more money-conscious decisions, sellers aren’t seeing the extreme offers they saw before. ‘They are wanting a break, you know, they want to break in the price just because the rates are higher, and that note is going to be a little bit higher,’ Meshia Edwards, a Community First real estate agent said stated.”
The Herald Bulletin in Indiana. “When the time came to sell her mother’s condominium, Carole Edwards was cautiously optimistic that a buyer would surface quickly. She was also aware, however, that the local housing market — mirroring several nationwide trends — is becoming increasingly challenging for buyers and sellers alike. She pointed to nearby neighbors also trying to sell their condo as evidence. ‘They’re around the corner from my mom, and they’re sitting there (with) the interest rates going up, so it’s going to cost whomever a lot more,’ Edwards said.”
“‘Obviously we’re not in the market we were six months ago,’ said Heather Upton, owner of the Real Estate Pros of Keller Williams in Pendleton. ‘I told my team this week, I said, ‘Buyers, and even sellers, have their brakes on right now, because they’re trying to figure out how to navigate this market.’ We’re in a market we’ve never, ever, ever come close to experiencing.’”
“In Madison County, several metrics tracked by the MIBOR Realtor Association declined in September, the most recent month for which data is available. Notably, the median sales price of $173,000 was down 11.3% from August. Upton pointed to the situation of one client she worked with recently, who put a house in the Summerlake subdivision near Ingalls up for sale with an initial asking price of $330,000. Within 45 days, Upton said, they were forced to drop that price by $25,000.”
“‘It’s super, super important that when we go to meet with sellers that we coach them on exactly what their competition is and what the market is exactly right now,’ Upton said. ‘It’s like sticker shock (for buyers), but we’re doing sticker shock in reverse now.’”
The Union Tribune in California. “Here’s another sign San Diego’s homebuying market is slowing. Pending home sales — when the seller has accepted a buyer’s offer but the deal hasn’t closed — dropped 49.6 percent in October year-over-year in the San Diego metropolitan area, said a Redfin study released Friday. It was 33 percent nationwide. Of the 10 most populated cities in the United States, only Phoenix had a bigger pending sale drop, 54.3 percent, than San Diego. San Jose was down by 47.1 percent, Chicago was by 44.2 percent, Houston by 40 percent and Los Angeles by 38.8 percent. Nationwide pending sales have not fallen so far since at least 2015, Redfin said.”
“In September, San Diego County’s median home price fell for a fourth month to $795,000, said CoreLogic.”
From My PG Now. “Higher interest rates from the Bank of Canada are continuing to take a large bite out of the housing market in Prince George. According to the BC Northern Real Estate Board, over a three-month period, the average price dropped 53-grand going from $538,000 in August to 485-grand in October. Bob Quinlan with RE/MAX Core Realty told MyPGNow.com that the inflated price bubble that dominated our city for the past few years has finally burst.”
“‘We have to say that the interest rates that were so low created artificial high values. So, what people are doing if they are going on those values of what happened last year or even early this year with the new interest rates, means people can borrow less.’”
“Quinlan added with interest rates being hiked up by the Bank of Canada, anyone in a low-equity position will be the most impacted. ‘All of a sudden as interest rates start to go up and you’ve got a renewal in a couple of years you are going to start seeing people go into foreclosures. It’s hard to say whether or not this rate adjustment is going to be a soft landing or a hard landing. It all depends on the motivations of the buyers and sellers.’”
“In October, 53 single-family homes were sold in the northern capital – a year-over-year drop of nearly 50% after 98 residential units came off the market. Year-to-date, 743 single-detached homes have come off the market in PG – a decline of about 200 when compared to October 2021.”