A report from Bloomberg. “No city exemplifies the mania of the Covid-era U.S. housing market better than Boise, Idaho. But in a sudden reversal, buyers are now the ones with power. Asking prices for houses are being slashed. Demand has slowed so much it’s like a light switch suddenly turned off, said Dominic Zimmer, a local Realtor. ‘You’re seeing the fear of missing out switching from buyers to sellers,’ Zimmer said. ‘Now sellers are afraid of not scoring the way they saw their neighbors do a year ago.’”
“In some destinations builders who could hardly put up homes fast enough now have inventory sitting. Homes started when the market looked unstoppable are getting discounted as they’re completed. A Toll Brothers Inc.house in Nampa is on sale for $575,000, down $44,000 since it was listed at the end of June. CBH Homes, the most prolific builder in Idaho, has 100 Canyon County homes with active listings on Realtor.com. As of Friday, 80 have price reductions.”
“In Pasco County, Florida, a relatively affordable coastal area about 45 minutes north of Tampa, sellers can no longer shoot for the moon, said Gerard Buglione, an agent with Charles Rutenberg Realty. He’s working with a family that moved from New Jersey during the height of the boom in April. They beat out multiple bidders and paid $270,000 for a four-bedroom house with an open floor plan on a cul-de-sac.”
“They didn’t like Florida and now want to move back. They sought a big profit, listing the home for $369,900 in early September. The price has come down by $20,000 since then. A neighbor just sold a house with the same floor plan for $10,000 less than that. ‘A lot of buyers have gotten frustrated and put purchasing on the back burner,’ Buglione said. ‘Prices are leveling out.’”
The Daily News. “The National Association of Realtors said Thursday its median selling price of an existing U.S. house was $352,800 last month — the third consecutive drop from June’s peak of $362,800, or a 2.8% drop. ‘The days of inventory being down 20% or 25%, those days are over,’ said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. ‘The decline is lessening and soon in 2022 we’ll begin to see inventories are higher year-over-year.’”
The Sun Sentinel. “Pandemic homebuyers from out of state sent the South Florida real estate market soaring out of reach for many local buyers. But there are early signs that the high-spending competition is starting to retreat back to the northeast. Sales of single-family houses and condos dropped sharply in the third quarter of 2021, in part due to fewer out of state buyers, according to Related ISG Realty, a real estate group based in South Florida. ‘The COVID buyer has retreated,’ said Craig Studnicky, CEO of Related.”
“Between July and September, 14,868 single-family homes and condos sold in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. That’s just half of the 29,992 that closed in the second quarter, the data shows.”
From Virginia Business. “The residential real estate market frenzy in Virginia may be slowing to more normal conditions, the chief economist with Virginia Realtors said. In the Richmond area, Beth Dalton, the president of Virginia Realtors, said they are still seeing multiple-offer scenarios and competitive offers at that. In spring through July, buyers were waiving everything, in many cases, just to seal the deal, she said. They would offer creative incentives, such as letting the seller leave things in the house they didn’t want to move. They nicknamed this trend ‘the Dumpster clause.’”
“This month, things are improving, and it’s ‘less frenzy-like,’ she said. It’s still busy, with many transactions, but more like what the fall is usually like, she said.”
The North Kentucky Tribune. “Mom-and-pop landlord conditions continue to worsen. Sixty-seven percent of the respondents reported that mom-and-pop landlords were choosing to sell their properties — a 15-point jump from last month’s survey results. ‘Mom-and-pop landlords are an important source of affordable housing. The pandemic and subsequent recession have put them under tremendous financial stress. We continue to advocate on their behalf,’ said Kentucky Realtors Communications Director, Paul Del Rio.”
The Albuquerque Business Journal in New Mexico. “Metro Albuquerque’s rapid home price growth has leveled off slightly in recent months, but that didn’t stop the market from setting a new record high in the last quarter. During the third quarter of the year, from July through September, the median sale price of a single family home in the metro area stood at $298,000, while the mean sale price was $344,775, according to the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors.”
“GAAR board president Belinda Franco and local Realtor Tego Venturi agreed that the market has slowed slightly since the start of the summer. The median sale price dipped slightly after hitting $300,000 in June, and fewer homes are selling with multiple offers. Venturi said the recent slowdown has more to do with seasonal impacts, with students back in school for the fall, than any underlying change in the market.”
“The number of closed sales and new listings for single-family homes each dropped compared to the third quarter of 2020, which Franco attributed to limited inventory. Venturi added that buyer fatigue may be a factor as well, as potential home-buyers look to wait out the tight market. ‘There is that light at the end of the tunnel for first-time home-buyers,’ Franco said.”
“Going into the winter, both Franco and Venturi said they expect price growth to continue flattening out due to seasonality. Venturi said a downturn reminiscent of the Great Recession remains unlikely, but a slowdown in the market’s rapid price growth may be a welcome sight for the market. ‘We can’t continue at this pace, for sure,’ he said.”
The East Valley Tribune in Arizona. “The Valley’s leading analyst of the Phoenix Metro housing market last week provided data indicating the larger role investors are playing in the regional housing market. Looking exclusively at iBuyer sales, Cromford reported that purchases by institutions or large companies in the region comprised 26 percent of sales so far this year as opposed to only 10-11 percent in each of the past three years.”
“And this year, iBuyer sales by companies and institutions have steadily risen the first three quarters, going from 19 percent of all iBuyer sales in the first quarter to 27 percent in the second and trending upward again to 31 percent in the third quarter. It also said, ‘Demand is improving but a lot of this is coming from investors and iBuyers so could die away quickly. ‘Demand from ordinary home-buyers is subdued, no matter what the media might be telling you,’ it added. ‘If the iBuyers stop their spending spree then demand could fall quickly.’”
From Business Insider. “My husband and I recently bought a home in the Washington, DC, area. Battle-scarred after losing several bidding wars, we felt victorious winning our home prize. But, getting caught up in the buying frenzy of the 2021 market, we waived the right to inspect our home, which has led to some expensive surprises and costs. Having owned several other houses in our lifetime and feeling trust in our real-estate agent, we mistook some of the nice finishes and little extras, such as nice appliances and window shutters, as signs that everything was in good order.”
“Before bidding, we got to check it out for less than 45 minutes. We dashed around from room to room trying to ascertain for ourselves whether anything smelled, looked, or seemed problematic. We tried to curb our enthusiasm for the home and use critical eyes as we peeked under sinks and behind toilets, examined the below-ground basement, studied ceilings, and checked the hot-water heater and HVAC system.”
“We felt trepidation but knew our offer wouldn’t be considered if it were contingent on a home inspection. Why would two seasoned adults who have owned several homes during their lifetime make such a foolish move? And buy their most expensive home yet? We paid several thousand dollars above asking price, which was normal in this market and neighborhood. Simply put, we got swept up in the market.”
“After closing, we were living in our new home exactly one week when the kitchen sink had a major backup. It was a Friday night, so we had to turn off all the water and wait for the morning to get a plumber, who discovered a major plumbing design flaw. The kitchen was enlarged as part of an ambitious renovation. The redesign placed the kitchen sink at the far end of the kitchen and a very long way from the master drain. As a result, the sink regularly backs up, requiring a plumber to snake the master drain — an expensive and unpleasant situation.”
“Then we discovered that one of the upstairs bathrooms had a massive flood two years before we moved in. We learned this only after our bid was accepted, and we would have had to forfeit the money we’d already put forth, which was a good part of the down payment, if we backed out of the contract. The subsequent repair work was subpar, including bathroom installation, drywalling, and painting. We have been patching and repairing many of these issues as we discover them.”
“Finally, we realize the house probably still holds undiscovered surprises. We have discussed getting an inspection now to learn, after the fact, what we should have learned before we bought.”