Step Inside The Market - Week 23, 2023

Happy Friday Everyone!

In this week’s recap, we will focus on the current trends within the residential real estate market, and where it may be better to buy than rent!

🤲 After 3 straight weeks of rising rates, we finally are seeing a reduction! The average 30 year fixed rate for a conforming loan, decreased to 6.71% from 6.57% over the last week.

👀 All eyes will be turning to the Fed Policy meeting next week to see if rates will rise or stay the same. If they do stay the same, we may see some reductions in mortgage rates coming over the next few weeks. Additionally, there are signs that we may miss (barely) a recession, which again could influence a decrease in rates over the long term!

⏬However, even though we saw rates decrease this week, we did not see positive news in the mortgage application space. The Refinance Index decreased 1% from the previous week and was 42.0 percent lower than the same week one year ago, while the Purchase Index dipped 2%.

👎 With the inventory of homes about half of what we saw during the summer buying season in 2019, we are also seeing increased pressure on buyers making less than $100,000/yr when it comes to purchasing their next home. This trend is likely to continue as more qualified buyers and cash buyers will continue to dominate the market in 2023.

⭐ If you are working with a buyer in the following cities: Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Houston, you may want to act quickly as it is currently cheaper to buy a home rather than rent!

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