By Justus Scout
One of the most concerning factors of purchasing a home right now for buyers, beyond the high level of competition with other interested buyers, is the high increase of home prices over the last year and a half or so. But there is hopeful news, as far as the increase in home prices goes, numbers are beginning to slow down a little.
Number reports have shown that for the month of September 2021, home price appreciation had a slower pace than all of the months before since May of 2020. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city price index showed that there was a 19.1% price increase for the year-over-year numbers in September. This number was down from 19.6% from August numbers which were also reported to have cooled slightly as compared to previous months.
Across the nation, numbers showed that Phoenix Arizona was the front runner for home-price growth with a 33.1% increase in year-over-year numbers, followed by the city of Tampa Florida. Only six out of the top 20 major cities that were on the report showed a larger price increase in September compared to August. Prices did increase in every single city, but not at rates that they had been increasing in previous months.
Some Markets are Showing Home Prices Cooling Faster Than Others
At the beginning of 2021, many homes on the market were attracting multiple competitive bids and forcing buyers in certain areas to resort to tactics like waving contingencies to have a better competitive edge and get their contract looked at by a home seller. The very high demand for housing combined with a limited inventory was the exact recipe for record-breaking home prices.
The most current market numbers have shown a step back including those reported in the price index spotlights. There were fewer families looking for homes after the start of in-person school in many areas. Though home prices remained high, the competition moderated just slightly and the number of home listings did as well, creating more options for buyers, this according to John Kinnunen, of Join eXp Realty
As society learns more and more about dealing with the current pandemic there is less and less fear surrounding it and homeowners are beginning to list their homes with less hesitancy. This very slight increase in home listings has caused a few markets around the nation to see a very slight cooling at a quicker pace than other areas. Real estate website realtor.com has shown that 17 of 50 of the largest metropolitan areas in the country saw declines in listing prices for homes in October as compared to a year ago.
What does this all mean?
What are the real estate market experts predicting for the housing market as we continue on through winter and into 2022? Some are saying that the pandemic concerns are still a relative thing and may keep some homeowners from selling their house just yet. But, an increase in home inventory is expected over the next several coming months. It is also expected that some home sellers will try to get their home listed before mortgage rates increase to maximize selling potential before buyers start to slow their interest in purchasing.
Some real estate experts are saying that the slower rate of price increases coupled with a bit of a healthier amount of housing inventory will mean a more balanced real estate market between both buyers and sellers. Home purchases are still expected to outpace last year’s, and competition is still said to be significant among buyers, but not at the seemingly crazy rates in which they happened over the last year and a half since the beginning of the pandemic.
