Today's hot news: Buyers are now snapping up homes in 15 days, despite the latest wave of rate hikes. What does that mean for the future of our market?

Hi everybody, Joe Hillner with Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, where we guarantee you a cash offer on your home within 24 hours! 

Ok, so every week, I share market data to keep you informed with the local real estate market.  

Here is this week’s Boca Market Watch.

First, Single Family Homes: 76 new listings, pretty good, and ranging in price from $375K to another one at $28.5M - not that's a spicy meatball! 28 homes back on the market, while 46 homes listed took a price decrease, a big jump from last week, and 9 sellers raised their asking price.  And  a very light week with 36 different properties under contract, and 24 going pending.  18 homes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired outright.  And another light week for sales with 35 homes closed in the past week,  ranging from $305K to $4.25M!

Next up, Condos and Townhomes:

80 new listings, pretty decent, and ranging from $96 Grand to $2.5 Million.  21 units came back on the market, 28 properties with a price decrease, and only 2 sellers with an increase.  And a so so week with 37 different properties under contract, and 39 going pending,  And only 18 condos or townhomes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired. 65 closed sales this week, that's a so so week, and ranging in price from $100 K to $4.4M.

Here's what's making news right now.

Rising mortgage rates, booming home prices and scant inventory are pushing homebuyers to quicken their plans, according to Redfin's latest market report, released Friday.

The expectation was that rising interest rates would soften demand and start to cool off the white hot real estate market.  Just the reverse happened.  In the wake of rising mortgage rates, homebuyers are racing to seal the deal on a scant number of listings before another economic shift knocks them out of the market. As a result, the typical home listed between April 8 and May 8 sold within a record-smashing 15 days — a pace that Redfin said today could slow in the coming months.

“Rising mortgage rates have taken a notable bite out of demand,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said. “But still, homebuyers who remain in the market are facing stiff competition, especially for the most desirable homes.”

The Federal Reserve is on a mission to temper inflation, and their best weapon is to raise rates.  Get this, the typical homebuyer’s monthly mortgage payment rose 44 percent to a record-high of $2,427. Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages have risen more than two full percentage points from Jan. 3 (3.4 percent) to May 6 (5.6 percent), ouch!

If anything, the spike in rates caused buyers to react even more frenetically, for fear of missing out, or being priced out by further interest rate hikes.  So they've responded by making even more aggressive offers on properties, to secure a home NOW.  I've never seen anything like it.

That being said, we are seeing some signs of a softening - the number of online searches for property are down, as are showing requests and mortgage applications.  So even as prices continue to skyrocket and inventory levels remain critical, we could be already in the early stages of a market shift.  For that to become a reality though, we will need to see a significant reduction in demand.  Keep it tuned right here and you'll be the first to know...