Are the Tides Turning?

After a record-setting and history making stretch of time, it appears that the real estate market may finally be turning. In the month of May, available home listings actually rose for the first time in three years. (Since June 2019) This means that home shoppers in May had 8% more homes to peruse than they did this same time last year, or the previous three years of Mays.

Chief Economist for Realtor.com, Danielle Hale, says this means more homeowners are finally deciding to sell. “Buyers can expect more inventory going forward, more homes to choose from,” she says. Granted, inventory amounts are still wildly lower than available homes pre-pandemic; but given the snail’s pace of new inventory the country has experienced the last two years, any increase can mean good news for returning to a healthy market. 

Despite a slight uptick in stock, prices and mortgage rates may still be causing people to pump the brakes. Also in May, the median listing price jumped to $447,000. That spells out a nearly 18% increase over last year and a 35.6% increase from May 2020.

Now that interest rates are back up over 5%, this means that in some cases, the cost to finance a home is up over 50% from a year ago. 

“Most housing markets remain in seller’s market territory,” says Hale. “But the market is a little more buyer-friendly than we saw last month, and we expect that to continue.”

You may be wondering if now is the right time to buy. The short answer is: trust your gut. If it’s right, you’ll know it.