In 2-3 months, you will be reading that sales have dropped significantly. The news media will have you believing the sky has fallen. They will compare the stats to the booming pandemic years and/or the best of times……as if that was normal. Headlines will read:

The reality will be that the market has just returned to normal, seasonal cycles.

I think sometimes we forget to look back far enough to see the bigger patterns. It probably doesn’t help that the media people are only following real estate long enough to write their article. It also doesn’t help that so many real estate agents haven’t been in the business long enough to see a balanced or even a bad market.

This is what a balanced market looks like: Some houses sell the first day on the market in multiple offers. Some houses don’t sell quickly and need one or more price reductions. March through August are peak sales months. After August the sales gradually slow down and start picking back up after the New Year.

So, for the rest of 2023, I think we will see fewer and fewer sales. Yes, the interest rates are high and that is what is returning us to a more balanced market. However, that is not the only reason we will see fewer sales. Part of it will be that we have returned to a more normal cycle of sales slowing down due to the time of year. I think prices will remain stable. We will see a whole lot of price reductions on listings that didn’t sell the first day on the market. This doesn’t mean that values are dropping. It just means the seller and/or their realtor were just too ambitious on the list price. We are returning to a market where buyers have some choices. When there are not 10 buyers fighting for ever single house, it means the loser houses that nobody wants will have to reduce the price to even attract one buyer.