Is the housing market correcting?

If you're following the news, all of the headlines about conditions in the current housing market today may leave you with more questions than answers. Is the boom over? Is the market crashing or correcting? Hey, it's Andy Mandel with the Mandel Team at RE/MAX. And here's what you need to know. The housing market is moderating compared to the last two years. But what everyone needs to remember is that the past two years were record breaking in nearly every way: record low mortgage rates, millennials reaching peak home buying years, and the mass work-from-home opportunities that became normal led to an influx of buyer demand.

At the same time, there weren't enough homes available to purchase thanks to many years of underbuilding and sellers were holding off on listing their homes due to the uncertainty of the pandemic. This combination led to record high demand and record low supply that was clearly not sustainable. The latest data shows we're not in a crash but we are heading back to the market pace seen in the years before the pandemic. Zillow owns a company called ShowingTime that tracks the traffic of home showings according to agents and brokers. It's a good indication of buyer demand. As you can see from this graph, the 2019 numbers give a good baseline of pre-pandemic demand. Those are the numbers shown in gray. As the graph indicates, home showing skyrocketed during the pandemic, and those numbers are shown in blue. And while current buyer demand has begun to moderate slightly based on the latest data shown in green, showings are still above the 2019 levels.

2019 was still very strong year for housing market. So this helps show that the market isn't crashing, it's just moving back towards more pre-pandemic levels. Don't let the media fearmongering and clickbaiting fool you. Headlines will talk about how existing home sales are declining but prospective matters. Here's a look at existing home sales going all the way back to 2019. Again, a similar story emerges. The pandemic numbers shown in blue beat the more typical year of 2019 home sales shown in gray. And according to the latest projections for 2022, which are shown in green, the market is on pace to close this year with more home sales than 2019 as well. It's important to compare today, not to the abnormal pandemic years, but to the most recent normal year to show the current housing market is still strong. If you're thinking about buying or selling a home this year and want more info on the hyperlocal market in your area, give us a call, shoot us a text or DM us.