Today's top story:  Panicked sellers are turning to Opendoor for offers.

Hi everybody, Joe Hillner with Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, where we guarantee the sale of your home or I'll buy it! 

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:

This past week, 59 new listings, about avg, and ranging in price from $419K to $41.5M, now that's a spicy meatball!  6 homes back on the market, while 64 homes listed took a price decrease, and 4 sellers raised their asking price.  And another poor week,  with just 30 different properties under contract, and 18 going pending! 31 homes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired outright  And the worst week ever for sales with just 21 homes sold, ranging from $415K to $18.6M!

Next up, Condos and Townhomes:

52 new listings, not great,  and ranging from $85 Grand to $3.25 Million.  16 units came back on the market, 48 properties with a price decrease, and 5 sellers with an increase.  And like last week, another terrible week with only 23 different properties under contract, and 22 going pending,  17 condos or townhomes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired. 40 closed sales this week, that's not good either, and ranging in price from $130K to $5.55M.

Here's what's making news right now.

Opendoor says that sellers are increasingly requesting offers from the iBuyer AFTER listings hit the market.  That's a significant change because previously, sellers would request an offer before they even listed the home.  And since iBuyers were paying market value or above, in many cases, the seller just accepted the deal.

A holding pattern between homebuyers wary of falling prices and sellers holding onto sweet memories of rapidly rising home prices from a year ago, are causing transactions to stall.  Days on market are rapidly shooting up, and sellers are panicked if they haven't gotten offers right away.  In that event, many are turning to Opendoor and are requesting that the iBuyer make them an offer.

Even though I sell real estate, I often think of myself as a therapist, because I'm constantly having to talk clients off the ledge.  Buying or selling a home is extremely stressful, and in this uncertain market, it's no different.  Buyers are afraid to buy because they fear prices may start falling soon.  And again, sellers start twitching if their home hasn't sold in a week. 

The challenge with getting an Opendoor offer is that they just wrote off nearly a $billion in losses last quarter. So their offers are much more conservative, if not downright lowball.  I have a property listed right now that's been on the market for a week at $450,000.  We've had good activity but no offers.  The owner asked Opendoor to make an offer, and they came in at $375K, ouch!  But that's the new mormal.

Once we get some market stability, and some clear direction, all those players sitting on the sidelines right now will come out to play.

In related news, the mortgage rates dropped significantly this week to about 6.6%.  Historically, this was the biggest drop in rates in a week, EVER!  And creative lenders are encouraging sellers to make their homes more attractive, by offering Temporary Rate Buydowns to a buyer.  

This reduces the mortgage rate, and consequently the payment, in years 1 and 2, in effect stair stepping up the payments gradually.  This makes it easier for the buyer to handle the payments, and is much less expensive than the other option, which is to give a monetary credit to the buyer to permanently buy down their rate.

If you know anyone looking to buy but struggling with the current rates, have them reach out to us so we can explain how this cool program works - there's no charge or obligation.