October 2024 Market

October 2024 Market Trends

Winter is Coming!

It’s getting serious around here. The weather is cooling and, I can’t believe that I’m saying it, Mt. Bachelor opened for the season today. It’s the earliest opening day in more than 20 years. Time to dust off the skis, get the gear in order and change the tires. The weather can change on a dime here in Central Oregon and some could say the same for real estate. Up until the election things were feeling a bit weird. Buyers were definitely looking but feeling a bit apprehensive. I can’t help but wonder if some were feeling a little burned about the hope that interest rates would come down and then they just didn’t. We’re still sitting in the 7% range but hopefully the theory of relativity will apply here as everything that goes up must come down.

There’s something I’ve been keeping an eye on as we’ve settled into a world of higher interest rates and high housing prices…concessions. It’s typical for a buyer to ask a seller to pay towards closing costs, a rate buy down in the event that a buyer is getting a loan or money towards repairs. Those concessions can affect the price that the home sells for but doesn’t show up on a site like Zillow. It’s been pretty typical for the past couple of months to have about half of the homes selling with a concession that the seller is paying to the buyer through escrow. I got really curious this time around and calculated out what the difference was between homes selling above, at or below original asking price before and after concessions were removed. Here’s what I found:

– 146 homes sold in October

– 71% of those homes sold under the asking price before concessions were calculated out.

– In actuality, 83% of those homes sold under the asking price after calculating out the concession that the seller paid.

This tells me that although we are technically in a sellers market due to homes currently on the market compared to what is selling, the buyer is still very strong in today’s market. There’s a higher probability that a home will sell for less than originally listed than not. Buyers are able to negotiate for what suits their best financial interest. The other thing it tells me is that what the general public sees through Zillow searches and similar sites is not the full picture of the current market.

And now for the pretty chart that compiles all the information in one place:

As always, call me with any questions. I look forward to helping you with your buying or selling needs or just for a chat.