Home sales tanked in May

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At some point you'd think prices would start dropping sharply.

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It's simply amazing to me they haven't, although locally (we're in one of the worst markets by % I think) I have seen it.

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Yet, I feel half the people I know are realtors.

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3% of those numbers is about $10B

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builders are throwing up homes and multifamily properties like there is no tomorrow

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Same here in South FL. They are offering all kinds of incentives and discounts, now. Inventory of new homes is shooting up, as opposed to a couple of years ago, when there were bidding wars and a 2 year wait for a new build in some areas.

I sold my house last fall and have been renting. Will buy when we get the right opportunity.

I bought a new home and relocated to South Florida about 5 years ago and the area I live in never slowed down. Until now. We are seeing the slow down and rise in new home inventory that the rest of the country has been seeing now.

Just sold my higher end Huntsville home in 30 days. Might have been a bit of luck, but It’s still a decent market. Apartment construction however is insane.

There are a lot of houses not selling in my market because they are overpriced. I think prices will come down.

Mortgage rates hovering near 7% will dampen the thirst. People aren’t “trading up” because they are sitting on 3% mortgages in their current home. Math gets in the way of making the upgrade.

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The only people who are buying and selling right now are people who are being forced to (job related or divorce etc). That's a relatively small subset of the residential buyer/seller pool.

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Living in a South Florida town that has a high percentage of retirees, I see that the reality of the situation is that there are many that are being forced to sell - either the owner has died or can no longer take care of their house.

In addition, there are a lot of folks who are switching houses, but paying cash. Either they want a bigger or smaller house. Either way, the interest rates don't affect them.

In addition, according to the Federal Reserve Economic Data, there were 343 houses for sale in Indian River County when I moved down here in Jan of 2022. Today, there are over ten times that number (as of April). The reality is that inventory is going up rapidly and it's going to take some time to bring it down.

The other statistic that shocked me is that the average initial asking price in Indian River County is $430K and the average sales price is $365k. that means the average discount is $65K, and I believe it. As one realtor said, "It's about time for buyers to start insulting the sellers", meaning the buyers need to not worry that their offer will insult the seller. If the house has been on the market for 6 months and not getting any showings, an insulting offer may not be so bad...

I'm seeing similar houses in the same neighborhood go for drastically different prices. We went to two open houses in the same neighborhood 3-4 months ago, both were pool homes of similar size and condition, but one sold for $130k less than the other one did. Not sure if there were underlying factors, but probably the difference was a motivated seller vs a patient one.

I've got neighbors that bought about 2.5-3 years ago but stretched to make it work. Now they are trying to sell because didn't get raise/promotion as they'd hoped and expenses are mounting. I suspect they may have took out an ARM to make payment work and hoped to refi but rate is up. Their plan is to move to a slightly cheaper hood and rent. All that to say they have had to lower price and asking less than purchase price. 3 years ago this hood was going above ask w bidding wars. Zoned for good schools in a county consistently ranked top 3 in FL (#1 by some counts) Still zero offers after 2-3 months during peak moving season for families.