By: Catherine Leonard, VP, Designated Managing Broker
Baird & Warner – Evanston
Despite popular belief, the market shift is not due to inherent malfunctions in the lending world like in 2008. The shifts we’re seeing are a normalizing response to the pandemic period of high prices, unheard-of low-interest rates and pent-up buyer demand. In most cases, prices still trend up versus pre-pandemic times; time on the market trends a bit lower (faster sales) and inventory trends downward. It’s just that all of these trends are less dramatic.
In actuality, the market is still strong, it’s just buying is now more accessible to qualified buyers. In other words, there may not be 25 offers, but the offers you get are actually more qualified, as they’re being approved at higher interest rates than before. Sellers still can demand a good price (just not to the point of throwing the market into a frenzy with ridiculously high price tags). Bottom line – don’t consume the national headlines and apply them to your own real estate situation. Things are different than before, sure, but not necessarily worse.
The best thing to do is to ask your Baird & Warner agent to give you market stats specific to your very own locality, right down to the school district. Your agent will compare today’s stats to pre-pandemic times, to give you a clearer, more “normal” comparison. Don’t assume – ask your expert and get hyperlocal.
