Buyers Drive Down Prices

It seems all anyone can talk about lately are mortgage rates and home prices. Granted, in our world, those two topics are basically our bread and butter. Analyzing the way these numbers shift and change can help us understand an otherwise confusing and volatile real estate market. Here’s a look at the numbers as of late! 

For the week ending June 15, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate sank to 6.69%, down from the previous week’s 6.71%, according to Freddie Mac. This decrease pales in comparison to an event that hasn’t happened in Realtor.com’s record-keeping history (since 2017): a year-over-year home price decline. 

That’s right!

In Realtor.com’s data-gathering history since 2017, median prices for the week ending June 10 came in 0.9% lower than what they were this same week last year. This means that the median home price that peaked in June 2022 at $449,000 downturned since then and now sits at $441,000. 

The Fed has a vice grip on interest rates but this median home price shift isn’t determined by them. It seems that fed-up homebuyers are the ones to credit for this decrease in listing price. They simply refuse to make offers on homes right now, but that doesn’t mean sellers are caving to their demands. For the past 49 weeks, the number of newly listed homes is down. For the week ending June 10, 22% fewer homes hit the market than a year ago.

This is also causing homes to linger on the market a tad bit longer than this time last year. Homes are still selling faster than they did in May of 2017-2019 but are hanging around the market an average of two weeks longer than 2022. 

The bottom line is that some buyers are still making offers and moves while yet others are playing a waiting game. The cost of homeownership is still simply too high for some and they aren’t willing to take too much of a risk in a volatile market.