The dog days of summer are here and kids are already going back to school.  If you haven’t noticed, the only thing hotter than a Georgia afternoon is the housing market.   But just like the summer weather, we are beginning to see signs that a cooler market is just around the corner.  Lumber prices are falling, housing inventory is rising, and some federal policy changes may begin to slow this overheated market, so follow along for the up to the minute information. Hi, I’m Bonnie Mullinax with the Mullinax Team at Keller Williams and this is House Calls with Bonnie.

Everyone knows housing prices have shot up dramatically and it is difficult to find a home to buy or rent.  That is still the case, but leading indicators say that may be about to change.  On the national front, lumber prices are back down to where they were a year ago.  Pending homes sales are slightly down for the second month in a row at 1.9% and inventory is up 10% since record lows in February. Home sales and home prices are still high and are expected to stay that way.  However, home prices are expected to slow to a much more normal rate of 4.4% for the rest of the year.  One good note for buyers is mortgage rates are still near record lows at 2.8% with only minor increases foreseen in the near future.

So how does this compare to and affect Bartow County?  We all know home prices are up and the number of homes for sale has dropped dramatically, So let's just look at this month vs last month.

First of all, the number of homes available for sale has risen for the first time in many years from 150 homes to 183 homes.  A 22% increase.  Another important number is what we call months of inventory, or in other words, if no other homes come on the market, how long will it take to sell the current inventory.  Right now that number is just over 1 month.  Perhaps the most telling of all numbers is how long it takes a home to go under contract. The average number of days a home is on the market is only 10 days and a full 50% of homes sell in less than 4 days. 

The average home that sold this month was down slightly from $281,000 versus $302,400 last month.  The number of homes sold this month was 128 homes vs 141homes last month.  

So what does this tell us? Well, locally and nationally there is a slight cooling of the Real Estate market.  Some of this is attributed to a seasonal slowdown but it does appear buyer’s are beginning to show some resistance to the rapidly increasing home prices.  But make no mistake!  This is still a Seller’s market.  With only a 1 months supply locally of homes for sale vs a 6.3 months supply nationally, locally we are still in a very hot market.  We see a slow rise in inventory and home prices through the rest of the year and a long time before we get to a normal balanced market. 

What could disrupt the hot housing market?  There are 1.75 million homes in default nationally. Watch for national policy on the moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. Whenever the moratorium is lifted, these foreclosures will begin to come on the market.  The unknown is this equation is will there be a trickle or a tidal wave?  Stay tuned right here for those latest updates. 

Don’t hesitate to call us to find out what your home could sell for in today’s market and also how we specialize in coordinating the sale of your home with the purchase of your new home.   For more nerdy data, visit our blog at mullinaxteam.com and feel free to like, share, and comment on this video and I look forward to connecting with you soon.