Reports of imminent doom in the housing market are premature, if not overblown, in the Oklahoma City area.
For all the fear and loathing coming from the, quote, "national housing market," end quote, single-family home sales around here, while they did decline in June, remained strong enough, on such low (but growing) inventory, to keep buyers paying more than sellers were asking.
The scare quotes are there because there really is no such thing as a national housing market. Real estate, especially housing, is local, not national.
Some local markets are overheated. Oklahoma City's, like so many, has been hot for a long time. Whether it's overheated, so torrid as to require correction, remains to be seen.
It's still a seller's market, or at least it was through June. Sellers got 101.9% of what they asked for on average last month, up from 101.2% a year ago, according to the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.
The number of new listings was basically flat, up 1%, at 2,471. The nearly 10% drop in sales, to 1,924, left 2,320 houses for sale at the end of the month, a 1.3-month supply.
Reports of imminent doom in the housing market are premature, if not overblown, in the Oklahoma City area.
For all the fear and loathing coming from the, quote, "national housing market," end quote, single-family home sales around here, while they did decline in June, remained strong enough, on such low (but growing) inventory, to keep buyers paying more than sellers were asking.
The scare quotes are there because there really is no such thing as a national housing market. Real estate, especially housing, is local, not national.
Some local markets are overheated. Oklahoma City's, like so many, has been hot for a long time. Whether it's overheated, so torrid as to require correction, remains to be seen.
It's still a seller's market, or at least it was through June. Sellers got 101.9% of what they asked for on average last month, up from 101.2% a year ago, according to the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.
The number of new listings was basically flat, up 1%, at 2,471. The nearly 10% drop in sales, to 1,924, left 2,320 houses for sale at the end of the month, a 1.3-month supply.
That was a big jump of 44% compared with June 2021. These were homes listed with Realtors, not counting those for-sale-by-owner or offered directly by home builders.
The jump in inventory shows that the times, and the market, are a-changing. How could they not, with mortgage rates so much higher, pushing 6% a couple of weeks ago, when they were less than 3% for most of 2020 and 2021?
Prices held. The median sale price was $272,413, up 15.4% compared with June of last year, the Realtors reported.
Kacie Kinney, an agent with Keller Williams Realty in Yukon, had some breakdowns by price ranges, ones where most of us live, in her monthly email blast.
"In the $150,000 through $274,000 price range, homes were selling within 3 days on the market and at 101% to 102% list-to-sales price," she wrote. "What this means is that homes in this range were still going over the asking price, and fast. Gone are the days when we could 'sleep' on it. Amirite?
"In the $275,000-$299,000 range, there was about a month's supply of inventory and homes were selling for 100% of the asking price. Very similar to the $150,000 to $274,000 range."
Home loan rates shot up in the spring before moderating on fears of inflation and possible recession. But no one expects to see the likes of 2.7% again. Rates ticked up again this week, averaging 5.51% for the traditional 30-year mortgage, according to Freddie Mac.
"Will this be the start of the shift to a buyer's market? Will prices begin to plateau? Are we going to start seeing distressed properties?" Kinney wondered, adding a bug-eyed emoji.
If so, it's a slow start.
"People are talking about, 'Is this the downturn?' I do not see that happening for a while because of Business 101, supply and demand," agent Brian Preston, of RE/MAX at Home in Edmond, said on a LinkedIn video report. We are still getting multiple offers ... dozens, one or two dozen per house, especially in the lower price ranges under $300,000."
Keep reading on The Oklahoman.
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