“The Super Bowl is like Groundhog Day for real estate economists; we usually have a read on how the market is shaping up by the beginning of February, and the read this year is that it’s looking sluggish so far, mostly because of stubbornly high mortgage rates,” said Chen Zhao, Redfin’s economic research lead.
Zhao noted the central bank was unlikely to cut interest rates in the next month, which means that mortgage rates will be staying near 7% in the meantime.
“Activity should pick up a bit in the spring, partly because it’ll be selling season and partly because people are getting more and more accustomed to elevated rates. We expect mortgage rates to start declining later in the spring as inflation eases and the Fed finally starts cutting interest rates,” said Zhao.
Christine Kooiker, a Redfin Premier agent, has been encouraging homeowners who were considering selling their homes to list them soon.
“A lot of sellers want to wait until spring, but I’m telling people to consider listing in the next few weeks because even though demand is fairly slow, there’s hardly anything else on the market,” she explained.
Source: mpamag.com