Home Prices Hold Steady Despite Falling Sales
While some formerly overheated housing markets such as Austin, Texas, have seen gradual price declines over the last year, overall, national home prices have not experienced a significant drop. The housing market is facing reduced sales activity and low inventory, but according to HousingWire, there is no clear evidence of a price collapse.
Inventory has increased slightly, but demand has been affected by high mortgage rates, with fewer new contracts compared with previous years. Price reductions have dipped, possibly due to an increase in withdrawn listings as sellers reconsider their options for the year.
The fact is that while people who bought homes in May of last year in say, Austin, Texas, are probably underwater a bit, in general home prices across the country are roughly unchanged from last year at this time. That’s frankly surprising given how cold the housing market froze last fall. We have significantly fewer home sales happening. Supply of homes for sale is very low, and most of the year we’ve had more buyers than sellers. There are no signs of any surge in listings, and as a result we’ve seen a floor on home prices.
This week continues that trend. New contracts dipped as affordability is out of reach for so many. Inventory is very low and just inching up now week over week late in the summer. There are no signs in the data of home prices tanking.