Exploring Listings While Ignoring the Spin

For homeowners preparing to add their own properties to the listings, data from the most recent U.S. activity was heartening—although it might not have seemed so given the way it was presented in some news outlets. Examples:

• From foxbusiness.com: “Housing industry getting hit by ‘perfect storm,’ billionaire real estate developer warns” (but the ‘perfect storm’ turns out to be “a real estate boom like we haven’t seen in the past.”)
• From thehill.com: “Is the U.S. housing market headed for a price correction?” (The pace of sales eased somewhat, but only because of the shortage of listings —while the latest analysis “suggested that around 54% of homes still sold above their list price.”)
• From fortune.com: “The odds of a home price decline hitting your local housing market…” (the possibility of a decline could be an issue because “inflation…is particularly hard-felt in the housing market”—yet in reality, for 86% of regional housing markets “the likelihood of a price decline is ‘low’ or ‘very low.’”)
• From monivation.com: “Former Hedge Fund Legend Calls the End of Real Estate” (but “he’s not predicting that housing prices will go bust” …this turns out to be another metaverse promotion that “could put $8,750 in your pocket even if you don’t do anything at all.”)
• From The Wall St Journal: “Decade-High Mortgage Rates Pose Threat…” (yet “intense demand has kept activity at historically strong levels.”)

The negative (but actually positive) character of last week’s reporting was perfectly captured by the NAR’s end-of-April blog heading, “Demand is Weakening but Still Outpacing Supply.” Although the number of tours given by Realtors® had fallen slightly, 87% of listings stayed on the market for less than a month. In fact, all across the country, properties typically remained on the market for an average of just 17 days! The national shortage of residential listings can result in low sales totals—but the reasons for the gloomy-sounding news are positives for sellers.