The Seesaw Effect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
After surging in January, existing home sales<\/a> dropped 7.2% in February with all four regions experiencing declines. Sales were also down year-over-year with the South alone experiencing an increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHousing affordability continues to be a major challenge, as buyers are getting a double whammy: rising mortgage rates and sustained price increases,\u201d said Lawrence Yun<\/a>, NAR chief economist. \u201cSome who had previously qualified at a 3% mortgage rate are no longer able to buy at the 4% rate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pending home sales<\/a> were also down for the fourth month in a row: -4.1% vs. January. All regions except for the Northeast saw contract signings fall. \u201cPending transactions diminished in February mainly due to the low number of homes for sale,\u201d Yun<\/a> commented. \u201cBuyer demand is still intense, but it\u2019s as simple as \u2018one cannot buy what is not for sale.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The median home price<\/a> rose 15% to $357,300 with prices up in all regions\u2014 marking 120 straight months<\/strong> of year-over-year gains, the longest-running streak on record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investors<\/a> continue to create competition for homebuyers, gobbling up 19% of homes in February. All-cash sales represented 25% of transactions, down from 27% in January but up from 22% in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fierce price competition in local markets is driving many buyers to relocate. According to a new Redfin report<\/a>, nearly one-third of users searching on the site looked to move to a new metro area in January and February. \u201cOne of the only options is relocating to a more affordable area, particularly for first-time buyers who aren\u2019t able to use proceeds from selling one home to buy another,\u201d reported Redfin data journalist Dana Anderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunny destinations continue to beckon with Florida taking four of the top 10 areas for transplants, along with Arizona and Texas cities. Notably, New York and Los Angeles top the list of origin markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Housing inventory<\/a> rose slightly (+2.4%) to 870,000 units with a 1.7-month supply of unsold homes. Properties are moving fast, remaining on the market for 18 days with 84% sold in less than a month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith such high demand and low inventory, houses are flying off the shelves right now \u2013 even at prices that have reached new highs. Having more listings on the market would be good for everyone, but the stage is set for another active spring selling season,\u201d advised RE\/MAX president and CEO Nick Bailey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Builders continue to tackle the supply deficit with housing\u00a0starts<\/a>\u00a0up nearly 7% to an adjusted annual rate of 1,769,000 units.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mortgage rates<\/a> ended the month at 3.89% for a 30-year fixed mortgage but have since risen even more sharply to 4.95%<\/a> in April. Mortgage applications are reflecting the impact of higher rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMortgage rates last week reached multi-year highs, putting a damper on applications activity. The 30-year fixed-rate reached its highest level since 2019\u2026Purchase activity remained weak, but the average loan size increased again, which indicates that home-price growth remains strong, and a greater share of the activity is occurring at the higher end of the market,\u201d noted Joel Kan<\/a>, associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting for the Mortgage Bankers Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spring is off to a stuttering start amid ongoing tight supply and rapidly rising prices and rates. While talk of a bubble continues to surface, experts say the market we\u2019re…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2914,"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions\/2914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Existing-Home-Sales-Percentage-Change-YOY_022022.jpg-1024x576.webp\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/weitzrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Top-10-Metros-by-Net-Inflow.png-1024x709.webp\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Supply Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Hitting Four \u2013 From Forecast to Reality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n