Housing Headlines vs. Housing Reality
With so many economic headlines flying around lately, a question I’m hearing more often is:
How strong is the housing market really?
The data continues to point to a market with a very solid foundation. Most homeowners are sitting on significant equity and historically low mortgage rates, which makes widespread distress extremely unlikely. In fact, distressed sales still represent only a tiny fraction of the LA market (only 1.3% of all listings!).
On the buyer side, activity has quietly picked up. The number of homes going under contract in Los Angeles County jumped about 21% over the past two weeks, putting demand slightly ahead of where it was this time last year. That’s a good reminder that buyers are still out there — even with higher interest rates than we saw a few years ago.
As demand has increased faster than supply, the expected time it would take to sell all homes currently on the market dropped from about four months to just over three months. Homes are still taking longer to sell than during the ultra-competitive years before 2022, but momentum is improving as we head into the spring market. The big picture: today’s housing market may be more balanced than the frenzy we experienced a few years ago, but the underlying fundamentals remain strong.
Leah Guerra, Esq.
