The Current Beat Of The Housing Market

Despite waving goodbye to the frenzied activity that typified the housing market of the recent past, the current market is far from dormant. In fact, the flow of buyer traffic remains robust.

The ShowingTime Showing Index provides a measure of the number of buyers touring homes. The graph below employs this index to portray buyer activity trends over time, putting today's market in a clear perspective.

This graph exposes the seasonality of real estate. Observing the last typical years in the market (shown in gray), a steady pattern emerges - buyer activity peaks in the first half of each year (spring, the peak home buying season) and gradually slows down as the year concludes.

However, the advent of the pandemic in March 2020 disrupted this rhythm, introducing a wave of uncertainty (illustrated in blue). This phase gave way to the 'unicorn' years of housing (depicted in pink), characterized by record-low mortgage rates and soaring buyer demand. Despite these unusual circumstances, seasonal trends still existed, albeit at substantially heightened levels.

Now, onto 2023. While traffic has reduced from the previous month and is lesser than the spikes of the 'unicorn' years, we're not witnessing a drastic plummet in demand but a gradual transition towards the standard seasonal pattern. The ShowingTime report states:

“Showing traffic declined about 10% in May . . . This follows a typical seasonal pattern – disrupted by the pandemic but now beginning to return . . .”

For a closer look, let's zoom into the data for May from the past five years. This helps highlight the resilient strength of buyer demand.

What Does This Mean For You?

Buyers are still actively touring homes. They're more engaged than they were in May 2022 (when rising mortgage rates initiated sticker shock) and definitely more than during the pre-pandemic years. Therefore, keep in mind that the buyer activity is still energetic. It could potentially be more robust if not for the scarce supply of homes for sale. As stated by U.S. News:

“Housing markets have cooled slightly, but demand hasn’t disappeared, and in many places remains strong largely due to the shortage of homes on the market.”

The Bottom Line

Don't overlook the lively activity in today's market. If your house isn't listed, it's missing out on the exposure to all the eager buyers keen on securing a property at present. Let's get in touch and kickstart the process.