December '23 Housing Market Report

Transcript 

Hello!  It is hard to believe that we are wrapping up another end of year, but I definitely want to take this time first and foremost to just thank you so much for your business.  Thank you for referring your friends and for trusting me with your home purchases and selling your homes, not just in this year, but in year’s past.  I know that some of you  we’ve done more than one.  So, I really do appreciate that.  I obviously could not do what I do without you, but it just it means the world to me.  And I don’t want to let this moment go by without expressing how thankful I am for you, so thank you so much for that.  And then as we are kind of wrapping up this year and looking forward to next year, let’s just take a few minutes and chat about real estate, like what’s going on and what can we look forward to in 2024?  So, probably the big news, I’m sure that you are hearing it everywhere, is that rates have finally come down!  That’s like the best news ever, right?  And the Fed has given us some indication about how things are going to go next year, of course, things can change, but this is what they are saying as of now, that they plan to do three more rate drops into next year.  

So, keep in mind that I do have lenders even now that can do significant rate buydowns, so I just got an email this morning from a lender that has rates even in the 5’s now with a buydown, so if you do see a house that is like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t wait! I need to do that now.” There is hope.  So, it all kind of depends on your personal strategy and we can talk about that. So, if you are curious, reach out, I can always chat about those kinds of things.  But one of the things that is another little piece of good news that will kind of follow right on the heels of that is that one of the things that has been so challenging is that inventory has been shockingly low.  Like, normally I will tell folks that it is not even worth putting a home on the market in between Thanksgiving and the New Year because this will just kind of be a dead zone, but inventory has been just so unbelievably low that we have seen competition, you know, bidding wars over homes in December.  So, it is always home-specific, right?  So, if the home is move-in-ready and priced right.  So, you are going to see two things happening in a market like this.  So, if something is not move-in-ready it might be sitting, but I did a deal in December and we were in competition and it was pretty fierce, so.  What we anticipate, however, is that as those rates start to come down. what has sort of been holding this whole thing is that sellers haven’t wanted to put their house on the market because then they would have to buy, right? With interest rates and so as those come down and it frees more sellers up to be able to make a purchase affordable, or more affordable rates, we are going to see that inventory come back online.  Everybody is going to celebrate that, right?  That is just good news for everyone.  If you have been waiting for bad news or a big crash, I am, I don’t have a crystal ball, I can not forecast the future, like anything can happen, but it is not looking like that is in the cards for 2024. So, just like real estate tends to do, prices are going to head up and the competition is going to get fierce. So, waiting is probably not a great strategy in real estate.  So if you’re kind of on the fence, my advice would be probably don’t wait any longer than you have to.  But, we can always sit down and kind of strategize.  I always say that it’s what is best for you, what is best for your specific scenario.  There’s not like a big, general thing that I can say that is actually a one size fits all so let’s chat about what is actually going on with you.  

But, in general I hope that you just have a wonderful year end and a wonderful launch into 2024.  If there is anything that I can help you with, if you are having questions about the market in general or you know, I do this all the time, so even if you’re saying you know, “Liana, I don’t’ know. I have no idea what I’m doing in 2024, I’m just kind of sort of thinking maybe, you know a little bit, but would you just run over and like run through my house and tell me what you think I should do if I were to be thinking more in that direction?”  Because you know, a lot of times you need that like couple of months ramping up time period anyways.  I’m happy to do that.  Give me a call, we’ll run through your house and I’ll let you know what you should do.  Buyers are getting more picky, so there will be more projects.  So, if you’ve sold when the market was hot, hot, hot and buyers were not picky at all, it is a little bit different now so we should have a refreshed conversation about that. 

And as always, if we are not Facebook friends yet, my contact information is going to be below.  I like to have a two-way conversation.  I like to be able to communicate to you because I am a talker and I love that kind of stuff, but I really do actually want to hear what Is going on in your world.  What fun stuff are you doing because I would love to stay caught up with that as well, so Facebook friend me so we can stay in touch and stay connected. Anyways, wonderful connecting with you, wish you all the best.  Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your business.  It means the world to me, it does and looking forward to a wonderful 2024.  Thank you so much.