Happy Holidays! The Orange County Housing Report is hot off the press! You will find it below my signature line. THE NEWS…As anticipated, everyone is caught up in the fun and frenzy of the quickly approaching holiday season. The Report confirms the definite slowing of the housing market, but the good news is that the quiet is simply another opportunity to take advantage of a smaller market. If you’re selling, then you have fewer homes on the market to compete with and the buyers will be serious. If you’re buying, then you may have fewer homes to chose from, but you’ll also have fewer buyers to compete with. It is anticipated that January, not February, will be the launch of our busy selling season. This month culminates a dramatic 35% drop in homes currently for sale. Let’s get together this month to strategically plan your next move!
The low interest rates will continue to drive the demand as Buyers consider their next step in the housing market. First time home buyers will be amazed at the affordability factor the low interest rates provide. With the ever-increasing cost of renting, it is time to look closely at taking that first step to home ownership. Make sure you follow Dave Averell, Dave Financial, and myself, Linda Danahy Regency Real Estate Brokers, on Instagram and Facebook. We will be providing a weekly video about key considerations related to mortgage loans and home buying. The misconceptions are many, so we hope to provide insight and accurate information to assist you in making wise decisions related to your real estate endeavors.
I wish you all a joy-filled holiday season and I look forward to seeing and hearing from you and/or your referral!
Rejoicing,
Linda Danahy
The holidays are officially here, and so is the slowest time of the year for real estate.
The Holiday Slowdown: From Thanksgiving to the end of the year, it is the slowest time of the year for housing when both the inventory and demand drop to annual lows.
In the blink of an eye, the housing market has quickly changed and revealed a much different real estate environment. There are fewer and fewer homes for sale as the number of homeowners opting to enter the fray drops to its lowest level of the year. Many sellers who have not found success, mainly due to price, opt to throw in the towel and pull their homes off the market. At the same time, with all the holiday distractions, buyer demand drops to its lowest point of the year as well.
In just the past two weeks alone, the active inventory dropped by 11%, shedding 599 homes, the largest drop of the year by a landslide.
The supply problem that everybody talked about a couple of years ago is back. As the inventory continues to drop for the remainder of the year, expect the start to 2020 to be slim pickings for buyers.
Another factor is that there simply are not enough homes on the market. With fewer choices, it is much harder to pull the trigger on a home purchase. These two forces contribute to the massive drop in demand during the holidays. After ringing in a New Year, demand starts to rise immediately, but is still muted through January.
