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Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell to the weakest pace in more than three years, falling short of estimates and indicating the housing market remained in a slowdown as the year ended.
Contract closings decreased 6.4 percent from the prior month to an annual rate of 4.99 million in December, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. The median sales price rose 2.9 percent from a year earlier, the least since February 2012, to $253,600, while inventory increased.
So growth that isn't as fast as they predicted, but is still growth, is now stumbling? I'm not that pessimistic. People still need places to live, there's strong employment, they're still going to buy homes.
In our area, it would be a GOOD thing for the market to slow down a little, prices have been rising, and in super hot places like Seattle, we had silly bidding wars last year with people overbidding and waiving inspections just to get a house.
Last edited by Diana Holbrook; 01-22-2019 at 08:04 PM..
FWIW, about 6 months ago I sold a house in northern VA. We had it on the market about five weeks before we had an offer. We sold it for the listing price. At the time we felt the market was slowing down, but was still ok.
This winter, I suddenly found myself selling a second house in the same area when family member unexpectedly died. I thought we might have real trouble selling the house, espcially with a government shutdown going on. The second house listed on January 10. Open house was January 13, after which we got 3 offers. We accepted a full price offer and so far (crossing our fingers) closing seems to be going smoothly.
The two houses were fairly similar, so they make an interesting comparison. The house we inherited was maybe just a little smaller, a few years older, and in an older neighborhood. But really, not that much different. These are houses out in the exurbs of Loudoun County, they're all built within the last few decades and more or less the same McMansion size. The inherited house was (is?) priced $25K lower than the first house. We painted the inherited house but otherwise did no updates to it. We did a LOT of updates to our own house before listing it, which partly explains the higher price. We also put a St. Joseph's statue in the second house--if that's why it sold so quickly, all I have to say is THANK YOU St. Joseph!
So, as far as I'm concerned, the selling market around here is actually getting better.
Last edited by Piney Creek; 01-23-2019 at 08:04 AM..
Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell to the weakest pace in more than three years, falling short of estimates and indicating the housing market remained in a slowdown as the year ended.
Contract closings decreased 6.4 percent from the prior month to an annual rate of 4.99 million in December, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. The median sales price rose 2.9 percent from a year earlier, the least since February 2012, to $253,600, while inventory increased.
The past 3 years were gangbusters. A slowdown from that can be expected. Doesn't necessarily mean anything negative is happening. YOU, YOURSELF wrote that median sales prices still increased YOY.
What is your take on this? Or do you just regurgitate excerpts from click-bait articles?
Location: Danbury CT covering all of Fairfield County
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Prices are up in my market-60 minutes north of NYC. The average townhome price increased 10% in 2018 over 2017 and the average single family price increased about 2.5% over the same time period. Overall number of homes in down, that's because there are not many people selling.
The past 3 years were gangbusters. A slowdown from that can be expected. Doesn't necessarily mean anything negative is happening. YOU, YOURSELF wrote that median sales prices still increased YOY.
What is your take on this? Or do you just regurgitate excerpts from click-bait articles?
Bloomberg is clickbait?
Yes the median sales price increased YOY, but only a small bit and there seems to be a fairly drastic slowdown since Septemberish. Just because there was a small YOY increase doesn’t mean that there is nothing negative happening.
I know things have been very fast since 2016, but something seems to be up recently. I think it’s worthy of discussion.
Last edited by GiantRutgersfan; 01-23-2019 at 03:12 PM..
Yes the median sales price increases YOY, but only a small bit and there seems to be a fairly drastic slowdown since Septemberish. Just because there was a small YOY increase doesn’t mean that there is nothing negative happening.
I know things have been very fast since 2016, but something seems to be up recently. I think it’s worthy of discussion.
With that headline......YEP.
here are two excerpts from the article:
At the current pace, it would take 3.7 months to sell all homes on the market, down from 3.9 months in November though higher than a year earlier; Realtors see less than five months of supply as a sign of a tight market.
Yun said in a statement, adding that lower mortgage rates also may revive sales in the spring. Borrowing costs are near the lowest since April, and loan applications have surged in recent weeks.
Now if they changed the headline to read,
"Housing Inventory is Still Tight and Mortgage applications Surge"
....see how that changes a person's total perception?
I don't think price appreciation will continue as high as it's been and I certainly don't think the bottom is falling out of the market either. We may be approaching more level, moderate, 'normal' times, but how do you make thought provoking headlines out of that??
Yes the median sales price increased YOY, but only a small bit and there seems to be a fairly drastic slowdown since Septemberish. Just because there was a small YOY increase doesn’t mean that there is nothing negative happening.
I know things have been very fast since 2016, but something seems to be up recently. I think it’s worthy of discussion.
Yes, everything was awesome last time, until it wasn't. And I agree something is up. I just don't know what will be the catalyst. Could be China, bad news coming out of there right now. My money's on the massive derivatives market.
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