Today's top story: Redfin says, "We're going to have pain' as long as high inflation lasts.

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, 39 new listings, not great, and ranging in price from $400K to $7.95M! 13 homes back on the market, while 73 homes listed took a price decrease, wow, and 3 sellers raised their asking price. And another poor week, with just 20 different properties under contract, and 25 going pending! 50 homes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired outright And another lackluster week with 44 homes sold, ranging from $305K to $9.1M!

Next up, Condos and Townhomes:

79 new listings, not bad, and ranging from $109 Grand to $3.4 Million. 10 units came back on the market, 65 properties with a price decrease, that's a bunch, and 5 sellers with an increase. And like last week, another terrible week with only 23 different properties under contract, and 22 going pending, 20 condos or townhomes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired. 60 closed sales this week, that's decent, and ranging in price from $85K to $3.5M.

Here's what's making news right now.

Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather on Wednesday said that housing demand at the moment is “very weak,” adding that the “pain” is likely to stick until inflation lets up.

She was asked if pain in the housing market might last for another two years, but didn’t commit to a specific timeline, saying instead that “it’s just a wait and see thing, we really don’t know which direction the economy is going to go until we have better data.” Home sales are down 30 percent and new listings are down over 20 percent, Fairweather went on to note. The takeaway from these numbers is that both homebuyers and sellers are backing away from the market right now.

“Demand is very weak,” she explained. Among other things, the housing market is now being influenced by the fact that “people just aren’t moving the way they did during the pandemic” when remote work “changed people’s algebra,” I would describe the situation as a return to more “normal” conditions, and it should be noted that a tightening job market is also impacting consumers’ willingness to move.

In particular, pandemic boomtowns, such as Austin, Phoenix and San Jose have lately seen the most rapid price drops in the U.S. The higher they rise, the faster they fall. Though not everyone agrees about what exactly comes next for housing, Fairweather ultimately said that homeowners in fast-growing pandemic markets, like Boca Raton, could see values dip soon.

“I would buckle in for your home to go down in value in the coming months,” she explained, “as these higher interest rates continue to weigh on buyers.” So once again, if you're a homeowner thinking about selling, you need to pull the trigger now. Failing that, be prepared to stay in your home for possibly several years until the market stabilizes again.