Navigating the Market

As you may have seen in our “Happy New Year” letter, we dubbed 2023 “the year of the son-in-law ----> It wasn’t what we were expecting, but it could’ve been worse.” Well, the 2023 sales data has just come in and it confirms we were right!

 

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), there were just 4.09 million existing homes sales in the US in 2023, a 17% drop from 2022. To put that number in context, the last year the number of home sales was that low was the year Steve graduated from law school and Hans started working for the Washington Post. For those of you not up on your Wydler Brothers trivia, the year was 1995.

 

It’s clear now that the reason for the drop off in home sales was the combination of affordability and low inventory. With interest rates more than doubling in less than a year, many would-be buyers continued to rent or otherwise delayed a move. Homeowners holding low interest mortgages were loath to give up their mortgages and either didn’t move or decided to arbitrage the high rent/low mortgage payment differential and became landlords. Our team helped more rental clients in the last year than we've done in the previous five combined!

 

Despite the drop-off in sales and a more than doubling of interest rates, average sales prices held firm. The Greater DC Metro region enjoyed a 2.5% increase in average sales prices from 2022 to 2023. Looking ahead, we're optimistic, particularly in the first half of the year. Anticipated lower interest rates, a resurging stock market, low unemployment and stabilizing inflation have all buoyed consumer confidence. Just in the last week we’ve been involved in 4 transactions, all receiving between 2 and 10 offers within days of going on the market. Keep in mind, though, 2024 is a presidential election year (ugh) so we expect our Fall market to be a bit slower.

 

We'll be keeping a close eye on these trends and keeping you in the loop as we navigate the ever-changing world of real estate in 2024.