2022 Housing Market for Stevens County.

As we venture into 2022 the housing market is experiencing some new changes. The last two years have been very busy years in the Real Estate market as we saw high demand, low inventory and soaring prices.

Entering the 2022 market we still have very low inventory and a steady stream of buyers, so what are the differences? The government has begun to raise interest rates to slow inflation, which leaves buyers affording less.  The stock market has taken a significant dip, so buyers that are relying on their investments to fund a purchase are choosing to wait.  The soaring home prices over the last couple of years have priced a lot of buyers out of the market.

Currently, the buyers are still looking, but more cautious to buy. We have several buyers in lower price points, although I expect higher end homes to be on the market longer. The market is normalizing and there is less activity then the last two years.  Everybody wants to know “are prices going to drop?” None of us have a crystal ball, but the economists are predicting that we won’t see a crash in prices because there are more home buyers than homes.  The millennial generation is larger than Gen X and they are in the market to buy.  They do predict the prices will stabilize and not continue to increase at the rate of the past few years.

Our advice to sellers would be to price your home competitively using similar homes that have sold in the area and to not overprice it in the beginning. Now is the time to sell if you are planning on making a life change.

Our advice to buyers would be to shop now before interest rates increase any more.  It will take a lot of patience because of the lack of homes on the market, but owning a home is a great investment and it will pay off in the end.