NoCo Home Report!
As most of you know, January is my annual nerd out on all the Market Statistics, and the Noco Home Report is off to print! So now that I’ve had a chance to synthesize all the data I thought I’d share my big takeaways with you and at the end, I’ll tell you the 4 opportunities I see in this market.
My biggest takeaway is this: Here in Northern Colorado we just aren’t exhibiting the environmental factors that precede a downturn. Although there are many regions across the US that are experiencing deprecation, that isn’t the case here. So if you are waiting for the market to fluctuate to sell or buy, you will probably be waiting for a very long time.
Really it all comes down to supply and demand. On the supply side, the number of listings available to buy will continue to be our issue and the only way I see us alleviating our inventory problem is by building new homes. In the last half of 2022, we actually saw home builders downshifting and building at a slower pace.
On the Demand Side, we have strong demand at mortgage rates of just over 6% and I expect there to be improving demand as rates continue to their downward trend into the mid-5 % range. I’d expect demand to increase as rates decrease.
So the fundamentals tell me we are set up for continued appreciation. I am excited to predict we are going to see real estate activity return to the pre-pandemic norms.
Here are the opportunities:
- If you are sitting on cash and want real estate now’s a great time to jump in because the national narrative is the housing market is falling apart…which is keeping buyer competition down.
- If you want to live in a new home, don’t wait till summer, now is the time to buy it. Builders are trying to sell off standing inventory and the incentives are great. Once the stock is sold, the incentives will likely disappear.
- If you want an investment property I think a lot of us need to Consider making our primary residence a rental. If you want to make a move and are fortunate enough to have cash for our next downpayment I’d love to see you keep your home current home as a rental property.
- The vast majority of homeowners in our region are sitting on a big chunk of equity, and I think we need to be asking ourselves if we are deploying our equity in a way that supports our values, whether that be wealth-building, security, or quality of life.
Hope that’s helpful!
