The Fed dropped their rate and mortgage rates went…..up!
What the heck!? If you are a regular reader, you’ve likely heard me say repeatedly that the Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates in general, and not through their overnight rate, although their open market activities certainly impact the direction and scope of movement. Their rate does send signals as well. After the most recent jobs report, which were quite poor (but hopefully now accurate going forward!!), there was no doubt they had to act. However, everyone else saw this, and the rate change got baked into rate adjustments for the preceding couple of weeks. Some had hoped for 50 basis points instead of 25, so that’s probably behind the slight uptick in rates.
So what’s going on in our local market? Inventory is up 3% from last week to 3,654 units, and sales increased a very healthy 26% to 557 sales. This translates to a 1.9 months supply of homes. The rental market is now starting to soften a little bit as well, rising each month for the last 5 months from 1.1 months supply to the current 1.7.
Sales prices are up 3.8% year over year, though this month they were actually down a half percent month over month. Another data point showing a slowing market appreciation wise, yet still a sellers market.
The median days on the market are now at 14 days and the mean, or average is up to 25. So in most instances expect a little bit of marketing time.
In other market signals, builder sentiment remains in the tank, though it is not declining further as it had been for many of the preceding months. Materials costs and tariff uncertainty are big drivers.
As always if you are planning to buy or sell give me a call to discuss what all this means for your prospects!
It’s a good life.
Chris
