The hazy crazy days in real estate are gone, and the need to make an instantaneous cash-bid now has gone with it as normalcy returns. But escalating housing prices were the norm, and mortgage interest rates of three or four percent were fleeting so as things return to a more normal housing market, don't expect that phenomenal market to ever make a return.
Bankrate housing market analyst Jeff Ostrowski says home prices are at near record highs and mortgage rates are at their highest levels in more than two decades, and most especially for first-time buyers who don't have equity.
For some of those who had to make split-second decisions on whatever was available during their search when inventories were especially low may be experiencing buyers remorse, Ostrowski says. It's been a very intense sellers market.
Ostrowski says buyers on the market now are well advised to forget the past. It isn't going to come back. "There was a school of thought maybe six to nine months ago that buyers might be wise to wait out the market, wait for housing prices and mortgage rates to fall a bit, and that hasn't happened. The economy is doing better than anyone expected," Ostrowski tells KTRH News.
The Houston Association of Realtors report for August finds the supply of homes on the market in Houston is as the highest level since May of 2020, the average home price now $340,000.
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