Deja vu to this time Spring 2020 

This is such a unique market. The market is active, but behaviors and perceptions haven't changed. The comical way of describing this is that sellers think it is 2021, buyers think it is 2008, and the skilled Realtor's job is to close that gap. If you are in the 2008 camp, my advice is to place your bets and sit tight, and let's talk in a year. If you seek to make heads from tails of 2025 Salt Lake City real estate market conditions, I think that you will find this helpful.

Highlights:
1) Roller coaster in mortgage rates in the last week+ after a year of up and down inside of a 150 basis point variance. Big drop, then a big climb in the past week.
-A week ago (early April) the big news was big drops in mortgage rates. Good arguments to be made for that being the case again in the coming weeks and months.
2) Annual/seasonal inventory increase began slightly early. Typically inventory trends shift from declining to increasing in early Spring
3) Plenty of inventory/homes to choose from, at least by recent standards,
4) Demand high enough to keep absorption rates at roughly 2 and 4 months (a balanced sellers market).
5) Welcome to this year's Spring market. Active, but very unique market. What is unique is that some homes go gangbusters and receive multiple offers while others sit on market or don't ultimately sell (results vary widely across neighborhoods and price brackets).

Fun timing for a market update....  I am having deja vu to this time Spring 2020. The conversations feel the same. Balanced, slightly tilted towards sellers, residential real estate market conditions. Falling, rebounding, all over the place, stock market. Same thing with mortgage rates with big moves in the direction that we like and then giving back more than those gains. Mortgage applications way up (data that pre-dates this timeframe). Conversations about how equities and residential real estate are competing asset classes. When one hits a bumpy road, savvy money tends to move to the other. The difference between then and now, is then, we didn't know that or why demand was about to explode. Now, there is so much pent up demand from the past coming on several years from mortgage locked in homeowners that want to, for example, upsize, that much of a decrease in mortgage rates, even to where they were last September could sure kick off an exciting and competitive time. Buckle your seatbelts if 30 year fixed drops under 6%, or 6.5%, tough to project the inflection point. 

On the supply side. The most common market commentary that I've heard in the last month from consumers is "seeing a lot of yard signs" or "there are a lot of homes on the market." Basically a supply side argument for the market slowing. Now this is a great observation. Inventory is increasing and has been for about 2 months now. Welcome to Spring my friends. And yes, inventory is increasing as it basically always does this time of year and that will likely continue to be the case until October/November. Inventory, by historic standards is on the low side. By the standards of the last half decade there is plenty to choose from. 

Putting supply and demand together, we have the makings for a very exciting Spring and Summer. Many savvy people accomplishing goals that they may have put off for a long time. I struggle to believe that people that have real estate goals are going to put those goals off yet again because of a temporary hit to their retirement account or in a brokerage account for stocks that are not being sold any time soon.

I would argue that there is A LOT of pent up demand in the market from the past several years. A huge amount of people that want to make a move but feel like they can't afford it and/or they feel handcuffed by their current advantageous interest rate. 

2024 inventory peaked in late October and was on a downward trend until recently. Annual/seasonal inventory increase began slightly early. Typically inventory trends shift from declining to increasing in early Spring

Across the board for the Wasatch Front counties, inventory/supply ranges from two and a half months and four months. By that measure alone it is a balanced sellers market. Some homes go gangbusters multiple offers (some neighborhood and price brackets have been super competitive with multiple offer situations being common) while others sit on market. In the current inventory we are seeing some price reductions. In Salt Lake County, 15.9% of the current inventory reduced offering price in the last 7 days and 34.7% of the current inventory reduced offering price in the last 30 days

Expired listings (homes that listed and did not sell) happen in every market. In the last 30 days there were 109 Expireds in Salt Lake County, 117 Expireds in Utah County, and 41 Expireds in Davis County. Even in a sellers market, not every listing sells. 

The headlines these days are all about big swings in mortgage rates. Buyers ARE BUYING homes in the current mortgage environment. 30 year mortgages are now at 6.62% (Freddie Mac). Big up and down roller coaster recently. These numbers are posted every Thursday. 

If you are having thoughts of moving, it might benefit you to have a casual conversation about what is possible in this market. Pro tip, selling and buying at the same time without moving twice IS POSSIBLE in the current market. Schedule a strategy session HERE