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<\/p>\nBY ANNA & MICHELLE<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve ever dreamed of buying your own place, or selling your current house to upgrade, you\u2019re no stranger to the rollercoaster of emotions changing home prices can stir up. It\u2019s a tale of financial goals, doubts, and a dash of anxiety that many have been through.
\nBut if you put off moving because you\u2019re worried home prices might drop, make no mistake, they\u2019re not going down. In fact, it\u2019s just the opposite. National\u00a0data\u00a0from several\u00a0sources\u00a0says they\u2019ve been\u00a0going up\u00a0consistently this year (see graph below):<\/p>\n
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Here\u2019s what this graph shows. In the first half of 2022, home prices rose significantly (the green bars on the left side of the graphs above). Those increases were dramatic and unsustainable.
\nSo, in the second half of the year, prices went through a correction and started dipping a bit (shown in red). But those slight declines were shallow and short-lived. Still, the media really focused on those drops in their headlines\u2014and that created a lot of fear and uncertainty amongst consumers.
\nBut here\u2019s what hasn\u2019t been covered fully. So far, in 2023, prices are going up once more, but this time at a more normal pace (the green bars on the right side of the graphs above). And after price gains that were too high and then the corrections that followed in 2022, the fact that all three reports show more normal or typical price appreciation this year is good news for the housing market.
\nOrphe Divounguy, Senior Economist at\u00a0Zillow,\u00a0explains\u00a0changing home prices over the past 12 months this way:
\n\u201cThe U.S. housing market has surged over the past year after a temporary hiccup from July 2022-January 2023\u2026\u00a0That downturn has proven to be short-lived as housing has rebounded impressively so far in 2023\u2026 \u201d
\nLooking ahead, home price appreciation typically starts to ease up\u00a0this time of year. As that happens, there\u2019s some risk the media will confuse slowing price growth (deceleration of appreciation) with home prices falling (depreciation). Don\u2019t be fooled. Slower price growth is still growth.<\/p>\n
Why Are Home Prices Increasing Now?<\/strong> Here\u2019s How This Impacts You:<\/strong> Bottom Line:<\/strong> BY ANNA & MICHELLE If you\u2019ve ever dreamed of buying your own place, or selling your current house to upgrade, you\u2019re no stranger to the rollercoaster of emotions changing home prices can stir up. It\u2019s a tale of financial goals, doubts, and a dash of anxiety that many have been through. But if you put […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-better-homeowners-news","category-sponsored"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20202,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20199\/revisions\/20202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOne reason why home prices are going back up is because there still\u00a0aren\u2019t enough homes\u00a0for sale for all the people who want to buy them.
\nEven though higher\u00a0mortgage rates\u00a0cause\u00a0buyer demand\u00a0to moderate, they also cause the\u00a0supply of available homes\u00a0to go down. That\u2019s because of the mortgage rate lock-in effect. When rates rise, some homeowners are reluctant to sell and lose their current low mortgage rate just to take on a higher one for their next home.
\nSo, with higher mortgage rates impacting both buyers and sellers, the supply-and-demand equation of the housing market has been affected. But since there are still more people who want to purchase homes than there are\u00a0homes available to buy, prices continue to rise.\u00a0As\u00a0Freddie Mac\u00a0states:
\n\u201cWhile rising interest rates have reduced affordability\u2014and therefore demand\u2014they have also reduced supply through the mortgage rate lock-in effect.\u00a0Overall, it appears the reduction in supply has outweighed the decrease in demand, thus house prices have started to increase\u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n
\nBuyers: If you\u2019ve been waiting to\u00a0buy a home\u00a0because you were afraid its value might drop, knowing that home prices have gone back up should make you feel better.\u00a0Buying a home\u00a0gives you a chance to own something that usually becomes\u00a0more valuable over time.
\nSellers: If you\u2019ve been holding off on selling your house because you were worried about how changing home prices would impact its value, it could be a smart move to work with a\u00a0real estate agent\u00a0and put your house\u00a0on the market. You don\u2019t have to wait any longer because the most recent data indicates home prices have turned in your favor.<\/p>\n
\nIf you put off moving because you were worried that home prices might go down, data shows they\u2019re increasing across the country. Let\u2019s connect so you can understand how home prices are changing in our local area.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ANNA-M-A-Flyer-footer-2023-1024x241.jpg\")
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