By CNBC
As the summer season is just heating up, housing market competition is cooling off. Listings are multiplying and price gains are moderate. Biddings are less frequent and prices might go down again.
The housing shortage that fueled competition and resulted in sky-high price gains throughout 2017 and the first half of 2018 is on the horizon yet again. According to realtor.com, supply is soon to go down and may hit a potentially new low.
They are projecting that inventory supply will continue to go down and flatten in the next three months. This may hit its first decline in October of this year.
Even with low mortgage rates, refinance applications are up, but not much movement on the purchase side. This is largely because the price of entry has gone up. Entry level homes are being scooped up by investors for rentals.
Part of the issue is that fewer owners are now listing their homes for sale, and there are several reasons why.
Home prices gains are stagnating and while all real estate is local. Still inventory is leanest in some of the nation’s most affordable markets. Redfin, a real estate brokerage and analytics company, inventory fell in June annually for the first time since last September last year. Cities like Memphis, Tennessee, Pittsburg and Oklahoma City saw double-digit declines in the supply homes for sale, Pricier markets like San Jose, Seattle, California and Boston are still seeing inventory gains.
Seeing this trend, lower interest rate will bring back buyers and bidding wars, which will push prices up this summer. Inland homes are still affordable for a middle-class family but if the trend continue bidding wars will heat up the most.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/09/the-housing-market-is-about-to-shift-in-a-bad-way-for-buyers.html