5 Lies About Real Estate Right Now

5 Lies About Real Estate Right Now

You can’t go anywhere right now without hearing something that probably sounds scary about the market…RECESSION!  BUBBLE!  INTEREST RATES!!  I thought it might be helpful for me to let you know what I’m seeing, locally, today.  There’s a lot of misinformation flying around!  Here’s my list of “lies” about real estate ;)

1.  Home prices are going down! 

Sorry to break it to you-prices in the Triangle are not likely to see any significant depreciation.  Median sales price of real estate in Wake County continues to climb.  June 2022 saw an increase to $470,000.  

At the same time, the number of all homes sold in Wake County fell by 20% over the prior year, as market demand has slowed slightly.

2.   Home prices are high, and inventory is low.  I can sell my house myself!  

You probably do have equity in your home right now, and yes, there is a shortage of homes in the Triangle.  If you stuck a sign in your front yard, and threw some photos on social media, would you find someone to buy it?  Probably.  There is so much more to it than that.  The way you advertise a home for sale MATTERS.  If you throw your home on Facebook, it goes out to people who use Facebook and you’re limited by the algorithm.  If I market your home, I’m syndicating it to about 6000 websites.  Not an exaggeration.   Agents actually despise showing FSBO’s to their buyers.  It’s typically a nightmare, because there’s a lot of back and forth trying to coordinate schedules, get access to the home, and most importantly, the general public doesn’t understand what information they need to provide to a buyer for them to feel confident writing an offer.  And I don’t care how much you study home search websites; you can’t possibly understand how to price a home to cause it to sell for top dollar.  That in itself takes years of being a student of the market.  You WILL leave money on the table by navigating the process by yourself.  For sale by owner: Is selling a home without an agent worth it? (usatoday.com)

3.     The housing market is going to come to a grinding halt because of the rise in interest rates.

People who need houses are not going to stop needing houses because rates have risen.  People’s housing needs change every day.  Babies are born, people get married, people get divorced, they die, they get relocated for jobs-all these things cause people to sell and buy homes.  I’m not talking about the person who just wishes they had a better yard, or a garage, or something newer.  The thing that influences the market the most is jobs, and the unemployment rate was at 3.6% in June.  Jobs in our area, specifically, are less impacted by shifts in the economy, as homebuyers are largely employed by tech, education, and medical centers.  Listen to Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for NAR, speak about it here : What the Fed's Rate Hike Means for the Housing Market

4.     This is 2008 all over again!

Friends, this moment in history couldn’t be any more different than 2008.  Lending standards have been completely overhauled, I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t have equity in their home today, and in 2008, builders had overbuilt.  In our area, there was a lack of new home inventory for so long, that the homes that they are building today are just helping us get to the number we need to be to sustain the population growth we are experiencing.

5.     Even if I wanted to move, there’s nothing to buy.

Good news-the rise in rates combined with some buyers being exhausted by searching for months and throwing in the towel has shrunken the pool of people shopping right now.  If you’re searching for a home, you may have more to choose from than we have seen in years. 

Questions about anything I said here?  Curious to know what your home is worth?  Reach out to me, I can talk about this stuff all day ????  Alyson Gulassa