Now that the vaccination against COVID-19 continues to roll out all over America and some parts of the world, experts believe that this further improvement may lead to more houses for sale in the market.
On top of the global health crisis, pending home sales drop and signed contracts on existing houses declined by 10% was recorded last January to February, as reported by the National Association of Realtors.
Despite all these bumps in the real estate industry, Zillow President Susan Daimler said that the housing market remains to be a hot industry these days.
In an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell," Daimler explained that the recorded hurdles were simply brought by the persistent housing shortage and bad weather in the country during those months.
"All the indicators that we see say that this housing market ... [continues] to be hot, and there are a lot of reasons for that," the head of the online real estate marketplace said.
The Zillow president is also optimistic that more homes could be released in the market soon, especially now that the COVID-19 vaccine drive progresses, making workers gain certainty about going back to work and reviving their businesses.
Daimler excitedly shared that recently, Google searches on home buying and selling are up, which shows how people will soon reshape the housing market.
"What we know is that moving is on a lot of people's minds, and we're imagining a lot of would-be movers are going to come off the sidelines here," she added.
Daimler also said that there is a "great reshuffling" going on in the real estate market at the moment, as the recent rise in the mortgage rate is met by high demand.
"We believe in this idea of the 'great reshuffling' is what's happening, which is it's less about this flight from urban and flight to suburban and more just about people moving. Just people wanting to get into new spaces," she explained, adding that the "reshuffling" will probably continue.
Zill
How will the upcoming inventory affect the supply and demand?
As per Mortgage News Daily, the country's mortgage rate is still historically low even after the average 30-year fixed loan rate of 3.45% was up from 3% in 2021.
The inventory is still relatively low, leading potential homebuyers to place higher offers just to secure the house of their dreams.
But instead of worrying about the affordability affecting the demand for housing, Daimler said that at the end of the day, the mortgage rates are the ones dictating the affordability in the market.
"Those mortgage rates are really what feeds the affordability," Daimler said.
"As long as those stay low and also we have this pent-up demand from buyers as well. So it's quite possible that we see a bunch of listings come on, and there's enough buyers to scoop them up, and we'll stay in this place we're at right now, she added.
As per Zillow, Daimler said that the online marketplace continues to place strong offers in the market.
