May seems to always be the most hectic month of the year. Graduations, picnics, school parties, sports, boating…commitments and fun keep us busy all month long, and we’re sure the same is true for you.
The real estate market has a way of hitting its full stride in May as well. For the last few years, May has signaled the time when many homeowners decide to put their homes on the market. This year appears to be similar as we’ve listed two homes for sale in recent days. This is a good sign for the market at large since the single greatest issue we have in our market is too few homes for sale. Yes, that’s a bigger issue than high mortgage rates (although one could argue these issues are linked together)!
At the time of this writing, there are fewer than 100 single-family homes for sale in Folsom.
May is often when new listings hit their annual peak
This is an incredibly low amount, considering we are a town of over 80,000 people and 28,000 housing units. Over the last few years, beginning in May, we start to see this figure increase through the summer months, but since interest rates began rising two years ago we have seen the number of homes for sale in the summertime decrease dramatically.
What will this summer bring? Unfortunately, much of the same. Unless we get more calls from clients interested in selling their homes this summer, we expect the number of homes for sale to be similar to last summer. For current homeowners not looking to move, this is great news. For those looking to buy their first home, this is truly discouraging, at least for now.
We are anticipating mortgage rates to improve in the second half of the year, which will likely do two things: #1) more buyers will re-enter the market due to improved affordability; and #2) more “move-up” and relocating sellers will choose to put their home on the market as they feel less committed to remaining in their current home to hold on to an ultra-low mortgage rate. This increase in both demand and supply should keep prices level while increasing options for buyers.
Much like May’s relentless calendar, the real estate market keeps chugging right along despite challenging conditions. Either way…Bring. It. On.