Sex sells but fear sells more. The crashing housing market that is all over YouTube is not real life. One of the market’s biggest challenges is bad information. The sky is not falling. Fluctuating interest rates are not devastating the housing market like they did last fall.
Buyers are buying. Fewer than in recent years but these buyers are buying for human reasons: new jobs, marriage, babies, divorce, empty nest, etc.
There are not a lot of sellers putting their homes on the market, in fact, March had the fewest new listings in 23 years. For a market the size of Greater Phoenix, we should have about 20,000 available listings. Today, we have fewer than 13,000. This has not only stabilized prices but pushed them up. Prices are higher now than they were in January. We will see how the final March numbers play out, here is my preliminary assessment.
There is a silver lining. Demand may be tempered right now. There is a lot of uncertainty out there. Always remember that in order to have a healthy housing market you need jobs and migration. The Greater Phoenix jobs market is bigger than it was pre-covid and Maricopa County grew the most last year. People are moving here and they need a place to live.
Sarah Perkins is an award winning account executive and has been in title sales since 2004. As the Director of Industry Research & Senior Account Executive, Sarah’s role is to bring real estate transactions to Navi Title. Sarah supports her clients by helping them navigate the ever-changing real estate space through thorough research and understanding of current trends impacting today’s home buyers and sellers.