The Federal Reserve just announced that they would cut the key interest rate for the first time since the recession of 2008. What does that mean for homebuyers and home sellers? That’s what I’m going to explain today.
Right now, this news doesn’t mean that much for anyone. We won’t actually see an immediate decrease in rates like consumers think. A lot of times, the mortgage industry is already prepared for what the Fed is going to do and has been lowering their rates to get ahead of it. We’re starting to see the economy slow down a tad now.
For homebuyers, this is the perfect time to get into a new house. Rates are at two-to-three-year lows. Our mortgage professionals are predicting a slight increase in rates throughout this year and into next.
For home sellers, you should know we have seen a 2.2% increase in inventory through the end of June in Collin County. This is your competition. The more homes on the market, the more choice buyers have and the more aggressive they’ll be with their offers.
“Days on market have increased by 25.6%.”
Days on market, meanwhile, have drastically increased to 54 days, a 25.6% increase. We have already exhausted a lot of our pent-up buyer demand. Homeowners were pricing their homes at top-level pricing and that’s just not the case today. At the same time, our average sale price continues to increase steadily.
The number that I track the most is the month’s supply of homes for sale. We saw this number increase by 12.5% to 3.6 months. If no other homes came on the market, this means it would take about three-and-a-half months to sell all the homes we have here in Collin County.
We’re still in a seller’s market, but you need to be careful with your pricing. It’s better to price right at the beginning than to price too high and have to come down. You’ll get more money with the first option.
If you have any questions for me about buying or selling a home, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
