Keeping It REAL - by Bettsy Tyler

 It's Anybody's Guess But...  With 10 years having now passed since the Great Recession, the U.S. has been on the longest period of continued economic expansion on record. The housing market has been along for much of the ride and continues to benefit greatly from the overall health of the economy. However, hot economies eventually cool and with that, hot housing markets move more towards balance. Housing market forecasts are essentially informed guesses based on existing patterns, and there are plenty of guesses going around, While the real estate pace of 2021 appears to be reverting to seasonality as we approached 2022, demand is not waning. Increasing interest rates will almost certainly have a greater impact on the national housing market as we move into 2022 than any other factor. Sellers remain in an advantageous position as long as the inventory remains at or near its current level. Housing supply is and will likely remain a challenge for some time as labor and mate...

 First, the tid-bits:   Highest priced home sold in August - SC County - $4.2 mil  Brand New - 5 bedrooms and 6 baths, 4300 sf with an apartment over the garage. Location - 2 blocks to West Cliff.    Least expensive home sold for $446,000 . 2 bedroom and 1 bath, 765 sf home in Boulder Creek 217 homes sold in the county in August, 179 in July, 229 in June. That doesn't tell you much, but looking at this graph tells you a lot about what is happening in the market today.     I like charts. This one shows how fast the market is moving compared to this time one year and two years ago. The number of homes selling each month are very close to the number of homes available to buy. This is definitely not a normal market and not one I’ve ever seen in my 20+ years of watching the real estate market. Just to compare - here’s how the last 17 years has looked:     The two lines have never touched like they are doing today. As ...

  15 years can make for quite a change in real estate. Who would have thought prices would be where they are today? A steady climb over the last 10 years is quite remarkable!  

"2020 will be known for a lot of things, and a record-breaking year for real estate will certainly be one of its more unexpected legacies,” prominent economist Daryl Fairweather said. 1 And he’s right: most of us would have expected the housing market to suffer from circumstances like a once-in-a-hundred-years pandemic and historic inventory shortages. But, rather than a slowdown, we are continuing to experience a surprisingly robust real estate market across the country and locally. Experts estimate that these conditions are likely to last well into the new year. Fannie Mae Senior VP and Chief Economist Doug Duncan predicts that existing home sales will ultimately “be up a percent or more in 2021.” He believes home prices will continue to rise due to limited inventory, but he is confident the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates low into the future, which will be “very good for households.” 2 Market conditions like fewer available listings, changing criteria for desired ...