Home prices continue to increase YoY for the seventh consecutive month. Despite interest rates hovering at levels buyers wouldn’t dare touch in 2022, the market continues to move along. This is because buyers are getting used to the new normal. They might not like it, but those desperate to buy are dealing with it. And with more desperate buyers than sellers, it’s still supply vs demand driving up prices.
|
Year-over-Year (YoY) |
Month-over-Month (MoM) |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Homes for Sale |
+5% |
+4% |
|
New Listings |
+3% |
+4% |
|
Homes in Escrow |
-2% |
+9% |
|
Closed Sales |
-10% |
+18% |
|
Median Sale Price |
+3% |
+3% |
MoM sales are up 18%, which shows how resilient buyers have become to the higher interest rates. This is especially true when we thought closed sales would drop in March after the crazy yet very brief start to the year we experienced.
Interest Rates
Despite the 10-year treasury being at its highest level since November last year, the banks aren’t entirely passing that along to mortgage interest rates. This is good news, as the spread between the 10-year and mortgage rates increased over the past few years. Hopefully, now that the spread is narrowing, mortgage rates will keep lower moving forward than we’ve been experiencing. Very important CPI data is being released on Wednesday, which will more than likely significantly impact rates.
NAR Settlement
This made big news nationwide, as agents' commissions and the cost of selling or buying a home will change. This will indeed be a huge shake-up to how the commission structure works. However, what we don’t know just yet is how it will actually play out. It’s very early days, and news about this is changing daily. So, I won’t make any definitive statements. For now, it’s TBD.
