As a benefit to the homeowners and homebuyers using our platform, I share a regular summary of housing market news and data driving our decision-making here at Bluebid Homes. We call it the Bluebid Buzz.
Disclaimer: Views expressed here are my own and not the views of my coworkers or anyone else. I am not a financial advisor, investment advisor, or housing expert. I’m just a guy who cares deeply about saving the American Dream of homeownership.
Here's the buzz for the week of March 2, 2023…
Key themes this week include all-cash purchases and profitability on the rise while mortgage demand plummets. Pending home sales are up, foreign buyers are back, and marketplace bottlenecks persist - but not for long!
While home prices are down 4.4% from June’s peak, CNBC reports they still ended the year 5.8% higher year-over-year.
Data suggests sellers willing to take the plunge have been handsomely rewarded, as a study from Attom finds all-cash home purchases hit a nine-year high and home seller profits topped 50% in 2022.
Perhaps unsurprisingly with cash buyers multiplying, Business Insider reports mortgage demand has dropped to a 28-year low.
Homebuyers continue to show up, as Yahoo shares pending home sales spiked 8.1% in January on a monthly basis.
Agents tell the Wall Street Journal that foreign buyers, who nearly disappeared during the pandemic, have returned amid looser restrictions and challenging climates abroad. They’re seemingly contributing to pending sales, all-cash transactions, and seller profitability.
The Motley Fool summarizes the current state of the housing market and surmises prices will remain elevated in 2023 due to continued supply constraints. My opinion remains that there are more than enough homes out there (for starters, 16 million of them sit empty!). Bluebid ultimately eliminates the marketplace bottleneck.
According to Redfin, the scarcity of homes for sale is contributing to double-digit homeowner tenure, and the reverse is also true: Long tenure is holding back supply. The real estate technology company also shares that renters move much more often than homeowners, which creates a mismatch between the number of homes for sale and the people who want to buy one. These problematic trends are exactly what led us to launch Bluebid Homes. The hurdles owners must clear to commit to listing on traditional listing services are too high. For the millions of Americans open to privately exploring selling, Bluebid provides a more welcoming path – without any of the pressure that comes with published days on market and listing fees.
Have a great week.