The question on everyone’s minds this month is: “What’s the market doing?” Well, what we’ve noticed is not necessarily a drop in the closing price, but a drop in the asking price.
Why is this happening? There are just a lot fewer buyers. In the wider economy interest rates are high and there is talk of a recession which makes people cautious about making large purchases. Not to mention the stock market had its worst year since 2008 and the bottom fell out of the crypto market.
What this means to the real estate market is that there is less competition in most price brackets, which reduces the artificial price rises we were seeing. This might give the impression that prices are dropping. The good news is that even though the asking price is dropping, the closing sales price remain steady.
Pricing your property correctly will make all the difference in this market. Smart sellers have already adjusted their asking price using data on sold properties from 2022. If an agent is promising 10-20% above the market rate, then you may notice few showings and possibly no offers.
Barring any major disruptions to the wider economy, we expect the asking price and sale price in our market to remain steady for the first three quarters of 2023. Toward the end of the year, we could see the market gaining momentum.
