Housing Market Softens as Inventory and Rates Change Dynamic
Reluctancy to lower home prices has houses sitting on the market, giving buyers more options thus changing the market dynamic while softening.
According to The Washington Post, “This year’s buyers are just much more savvy, and they deserve to be because they’re going to be paying more to purchase the home,” said Daniel Valdez, an agent with eXp Realty in Sacramento. The slowdown has, so far, provided little relief to buyers. Instead, analysts say, a growing affordability crisis, driven by the collision of inflation and rising interest rates, is forcing many potential buyers to walk away.
That is because some sellers, mindful of the stratospheric gains of 2020 and 2021, which brought the average home price up more than 40 percent, are reluctant to lower their expectations. And home values are still gaining, up 19 percent on average in the year ending in June, according to the data firm Black Knight.
