The bulls can say whatever they want, but none of that changes the current supply/demand dynamic. There are way too many listings, way too many of those listings are distressed sellers (and that percentage is increasing), and there are too few real buyers to make a dent in the inventory.
Based on what’s happening right now, prices can basically only do the one thing. The luxury home market isn’t moving as fast yet, but their turn is coming too.
I just reviewed a residential appraisal on a 1950s dogbox for one of my clients today. The appraiser in that assignment used 3 sales that had closed within the last 90 days as well as a pending sale and an active listing, and based on the active listing he still had to value the property lower than any of the closed sales. By $20,000. The property was only valued at $400k.
In 22 years of appraising I have NEVER seen prices decrease this quickly. Some of you may remember when I mentioned last year that a 10% – 12% rate of decline is a lot of movement in a residential market. Well, it still is, but a -20% movement in a single year is positively smoking. It’s the polar opposite of the bulls’ “hot market”.
