The past two quarters have seen home demand eat up existing supply. Now on the third quarter of the year, the demand has started slow down. According to a report from cnbc.com, this slowdown in demand would be felt even more as winter comes around in the hottest markets as of late.
This may come as good news for buyers in such highly competitive markets such as Boston, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle. The slowdown though would hardly affect other markets, as about sixty three percent of homes listed in June still are available as of end of August. The main reason for the continued supply is price fatigue, as more and more buyers shy away from high prices and altogether avoiding bidding wars.
This was echoed by Kentwood Real Estate agent Jill Schafer, who said, "We definitely saw a bit of cool toward the end of July. People started to get nervous about rising prices."
She added, "I think that agents were so busy and swamped we couldn't keep it going. Everyone I talked to said, 'I'm holding people back.'"
In another report, this time from bizjournals.com, reiterated the findings of Zillow. According to the Zillow House Index, this September would register the first monthly drop after four years of steady upward growth. The report identified Dallas, Denver, San Francisco and San Jose as housing markets set to tally double digit, year over year home valuation increases despite the decline in their rate of value increases.
The activity was aptly captured by Zillow's Chief Economist Svenja Gudell during a recently held national housing market conference. He said, "This slip in home values is a sign of the times. Many people didn't think it was happening, but it is: we're going negative. We've been expecting to see a monthly decline as markets return to normal."
