Market trends continue to be positive, in part, due to telework. Look out: A slowdown may be coming.
NAR’s report that the annualized rate of existing homes sales, at 5.86 million, surely doesn’t surprise anyone. Among the brokerage owners and leaders, July closed homes sales were a welcome and positive result. Most are telling us that August won’t be far behind.
None of this should surprise you. Nor should what comes next. We crammed 120 days of demand into 60 days. On top of this. the country is undergoing a transition from “live-where-you-work” to “work-where-you-live.” Further, there is anecdotal evidence that a meaningful number of families have decided to cast their lot away from large, urban core cities, especially those with a high cost of living.
Much of this excess demand will run into three realities sometime later this year. The first reality is that each of these trends will start to subside. Pent-up demand will ease. Secondly, the lack of inventory will slow the market. Lastly, even by the end of the year, it’s likely that we will still have abnormally high unemployment, with millions of workers out of work.
It behooves brokerage firms and agents to be aware that a slowdown is coming. Plan accordingly.