An Update on Our Fall 2018 Real Estate Market

Northern Virginia Real Estate Podcast with Janet Gresh and the Gresh Group

As we head into fall, we wanted to bring you a closer look at the real estate market. Here’s what you need to know.

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If you've been thinking of selling your home, you'll want to keep listening. Today I’ll show you how to get a significant advantage over a lot of other home sellers in the market today.

First, let me give you a bit of background on the current conditions in the (area) housing market:

1. Mortgage rates have hit a 7-year high. Several weeks ago, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate broke through the 4.6%-mark—the highest level since May 2011. This is part of an ongoing upward trend in mortgage rates, which started over a year ago. In spite of the rate increase, mortgage applications spiked in September. This is a signal that buyers expect rates to go up even more in the near future.

2. Affordability is dropping, and demand might soon follow. For the past several years, home prices have increased at twice the speed of inflation. For a while, this didn't have too much of an effect on the market because there was so much pent-up demand. Affordability is suffering—an estimate from early summer put current home affordability levels at a 10-year low.

If you’ve been thinking about selling, the time to act is now.

3. More home sellers are reducing prices. Not surprisingly, the combination of sustained high prices, increasing mortgage rates, and a drop in demand is finally starting to have an impact on the real estate market. More than a quarter of homes listed as of September 16 had a price drop.

What does this all mean for you? In short, if you've been thinking of selling your home, then the time to act is now. In spite of the easing of demand, there are still many hungry buyers on the market and prices remain near all-time highs. This means you can sell your home quickly and for top dollar.

However, all of the reasons I listed earlier mean this situation might not hold very long. Demand might slack off even more and many more homeowners might decide to enter the market, driving down prices and really ushering in a buyer's market. That's why it can make a lot of sense to move early—before this kind of awareness reaches the majority of homeowners.

If you want specific information about the current Northern Virginia real estate market, or you're mulling over the idea of buying or selling a home, please give me a call at 703-328-3434 or email me at [e-mail]. I look forward to hearing from you soon.