If You Can’t Say Something Nice…

It was beat into my head early in life that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it. It is a hard rule to live by because when you see something that isn’t going well, you want to speak up to what you think is wrong and what to do about it.

I have not written this blog for a couple of months to see how the start of the year would go and look for the good in what is going on in housing. I also needed to stop looking so much at what wasn’t right with it.

Due to higher interest rates (near 7%) and the lack of a lot of resale homes on the market, pricing remains stable and continues at record high prices. Under the hood, there are just less buyers that can afford to buy the few resale listing at prices that assume there has not been a market change. The good news is if we get more listings this spring, values should fall a bit, making housing a little more affordable in price.

At some point we will also be done with the Federal Reserve increasing short interest rates when job growth and inflation ebb from the pandemic stimulus. We are closer to that than some think. A little bad economic news is probably coming and that would spur rates to come down a bit and take a little bite out of the mortgage payment.

There is more good news as we approach the spring housing market:

Credit guidelines have not tightened. There have not been any changes to make it harder to get a mortgage. A first time home buyer can put down just 3% (and with lower PMI payments) and FHA is still an easy route with 3.5% down and lower credit standards to qualify. Conventional loans are still allowing pretty high debt to income ratios well into the mid 40% range to get approved.

The investor flipping market has really slowed up in 2023. There seems to be more risk to do a home flip for profit. Less of that activity should free up those homes to hit the market for individuals to buy vs. investors. Remember that a house isn’t a home until you put your touch on it anyway so a “little reno” could save you a bundle.

And always remember, there is no better place than your own home.