When it comes to Inventory of homes, numbers in Broward beg the question: What is the state of inventory presently available?
Between February 2019 and March 2019, buyers are getting busy. This is reflected by the 22.5% decline in inventory in just Broward County alone. Sellers are becoming more cautious about how much they can list their homes for and are holding off. The evidence of this is illustrated below, with the average price for sale in March at 609k.
The compelling comparison comes with the average price underselling at just 337k. There is a disconnection between what buyers seek and what sellers are listing. In March there were 5.5 Months’ worth of Inventory Available. It will be very interesting to see what the summer months yield. In observance of one of Broward Counties most sought after communities, Weston, numbers are not necessarily cohesive. Inventory dropped from 6.7 months to 5.1 months, a 23.9% change. In comparison to last year, this number is up 34.1%. In March, the average price for Sale is 776k, while the actual Average Price Sold is 557k. When compared to averages for the Broward County, Weston continues to have higher averages for selling prices. Despite this fact, there is still a fundamental disconnect between the price listed and the price sold.
This difference is consistent with concluding that the average price that sellers are asking for homes in Weston, is quite different from the average price that buyers are seeking. Nationally, as stated by Laura Kusisto, Home-price growth slowed to its lowest level in nearly seven years. Even the hottest markets in the country are still seeing a slowdown in price growth. While home price growth has been slowing down it is a good sign for first time home buyers.
In a video on Realtor.com, Danielle Hale, Economist, stated that National Months’ supply compared to 2018 has increased from 3.5 in 2019months to 3.4 months in 2018. She also emphasized that there are more buyers than sellers, which could potentially be creating this change. She also stated that there has been a backup of new building of single family homes to accommodate potential buyers. Top Markets for New Home building are Pittsburg, PA, Milwaukee, WI, and Rochester, NY. Sharon Nunn and Eric Morath, report that all U.S. regions but the Northeast saw new-home sales gains last month, with purchases in the South reaching the highest level in more than a decade.
The upside is that with the new interest rates there has been more opportunities for buyers.
Between lower interest rates and lower price growth, qualifying to purchase a home may be more attainable. Andrea Riquier in an interview with Sam Khater (Freddie Mac’s chief economist), was told that” Khater threw in the towel and slashed his rate forecast. He now expects the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to average 4.30% throughout the year, down from his earlier forecast of 5.1% – and also down from the 4.54% averaged during 2018.”
Determining “the state of the market”, includes looking at factors such as, how inventory is priced and sold, the level of seller and buyer motivation, interest rates, and new residential properties.