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There are signs that the housing market swings to prefer buyers. However, renewed concerns about the economy are holding back some buyers.
With the home buyers, the growth of the home price has slowed down and the mortgage interests have withdrawn from the youngest tips.
The median sales price for houses in the four weeks until February 16 was 375,475 US dollars, which, according to Redfin, a real estate agent company, was 3.7% compared to the previous year. This has been the smallest climb for almost five months.
The average mortgage with a fixed interest rate of 30 years dropped to 6.87% in the week on February 13 per Freddie Mac data. This is the lowest in the year and from the last climax of 7.04% in January.
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“However, buyers are still with this massive affordability,” said Orphe Divounguy, Senior Economist at Zillow.
According to the mortgage banking association, the mortgage applications for the week until February 14 fell 6.6%compared to a week earlier. Experts forecast a decline in January house sales data – which come out on Friday.
In addition to relatively high costs, some buyers could, according to Chen Zhao, an economist from Redfin, second thoughts because the uncertainty through the broader economy penetrates.
“A lot of it comes from the White House,” she said of the reasons from which buyers are worried.
Promising signs on the real estate market
According to experts, buyers offer some factors on the real estate market more space to negotiate prices.
On the one hand, the inventory grows because more owners place their houses for sale. With more options, buyers “have a little more negotiating power on the market,” said Divounguy.
According to Redfin data, there were 564,642 new heating parts in January, an increase of 1.9% compared to one month and 4.7% compared to the previous year. New Home listings have reached the highest level since July 2022.
Some house sellers also lower their prices. The typical house sells 2% less than its price, the biggest discount in two years, per redfin data.
Buyers are worried about the economy, the loss of jobs
Some buyers rethink their plans in the face of wider economic uncertainty, explain experts.
By mid -February, thousands of employees in several federal authorities and departments were released as part of President Trump's goal of reducing the state workforce.
This can “make people who either work directly with the government or are associated with contractual work or federal financing,” nervous that there could be major changes on the horizon, “said Zhao.
“You are concerned about job security,” said Zhao, who takes a house purchase from the table.
“The first thing they could do is to hold a really big purchase because they are worried about financial security,” she added.
Much of it comes from the White House.
Chen zhao
Head of Economic Research at Redfin
Fear does not stop here – the possibility of trade wars and drastic changes in government spending could the Americans ask how the next step is? Zhao explained.
Trump signed a presidential memorandum that presented his plan to impose “mutual tariffs” for foreign nations. The plan enables the United States to treat the non -tariff policy of other countries as unfair trade practices that guarantee tariffs in response to tariffs.
For consumers, the prospect of higher prices for everyday objects and the potential for acceleration of inflation can lead to hesitation to invest in a new home.
This is how you navigate on the buyer market
If you were on the market for a while and see a house that you really like, try to negotiate and see the price where it is going, said Zhao.
If the home seller is not open to the reduction of the offer price, check whether he can cover additional expenses such as the final costs or can pay for the buyer's real estate agent.
These can be valuable concessions.
According to the nerdwallet, the final costs can be between about 2% and 6% of the loan amount. If you take a mortgage of 300,000 US dollars, you can pay final costs in addition to the down payment of 6,000 to 18,000 US dollars.
The buyer's average representative commission was 2.37% for houses sold in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to 2.45% in the year before a data analysis by Redfin.
If not, take a look at the new market market. Increased builders offer incentives such as “internal lending” and often offer favorable loan conditions such as lower interest rates, say experts.