How’s the market?  That is by far the number one question I get from people I know and people I run into who find out I’m an agent.  Answering it is never straight forward so when I have more time to explain to them what’s going on, I enjoy it.

So I recently attended a real estate seminar and one of the topics was the current market and how people are feeling about it.  More specifically, is now the right time to buy.  According to a recent Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index survey, only 27% of people said it was a good time to buy with 73% saying it is a bad time to buy right now.  Definitely not what an agent wants to hear!!  Haha.  In my seminar, I heard an even lower customer sentiment of only 16% saying it’s a good time to buy, which is getting close to one of the lowest in history, which was in the 1960s during the war.  

Buyers are feeling very uneasy and they are getting pickier when it comes to buying.  The last several years since Covid, the market saw some dramatic seller markets with prices skyrocketing and buyers having to compete against multiple offers and reduce their contingencies.  Interest rates, although historically low currently, have risen slightly as well over the last several years putting some buyers on edge. Even though the increase has been very small, it has halted some buyers.  And the increase of prices has made the affordability of buying a home an issue.  Buyers are staying where they are at and saving money instead of running out and buying something.

These percentages found in the Fannie Mae study and my general comments above, do they apply to our local West County St. Louis market?  I would say yes, to some degree.  Obviously, I don’t know the percentage of people that think it’s a good time to buy but generally speaking, we’re seeing more price reductions and longer days on market in our area.  Those both are signs of a softening market (moving potentially from sellers market to buyers market).  With that being said, St. Louis has sooooo many “micro” markets that sometimes, streets right across from each other can be performing completely differently.  You may hear stories from poeple you know that say, “my house sold in 1 day for $15K over list price!” and then another person say “I’ve had to reduce my price because we haven’t had any activity”.  Each subdivision, each street tells a story about the market.

If you are curious about how your subdivision or street is performing in this up and down market, reach out to me at [email protected]!