To put it in perspective, a buyer I worked with this month with a budget of $700,000 would have been qualified at $1.2M at the peak but the price of the properties we’re looking at have perhaps adjusted all of 10%.Article contentAdding to the complexities of this new market, we have more inventory starting to pile up even further solidifying the reality that if one has something they need to sell, their buy needs to come after.
The pace and rhythm has slowed. Showings have slowed. Great homes that once wouldn’t have even made it to market without being snapped up before the photos were back are now often sitting. In all but a select few pockets of the city, offer dates are a game of Russian roulette. The market is balancing out and because the shift happened so quickly, to many it feels like the bottom is falling away.Article contentFor sellers used to holding all the power it’s a new world. Having your house take longer than a week to sell, having to be patient, having to negotiate rather than simply relying on buyer competition to do the heavy lifting, contending with conditions — it’s all basically foreign at this point.
And for buyers who are brave enough to be out there and find themselves looking around thinking surely this is the scenario wherein prices adjust to compensate, the stubbornness of sellers must feel almost insurmountable.Rates don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. So while the mounting pressure of higher for longer will at some point tip this balance into the next phase, in the meantime the name of the game will be expectation management.