”The good news of the day is that inventory is increasing at a steady pace”….This is the headline for the Outer Banks Association of Realtors(OBAR) February market statistics. Residential inventory is up 33% compared to 2023. But is this Good News🤔? If sales were also up it would be great news, but that is not the case. Sales are actually down so far in 2024. Under Contracts are down 14% and sales are down 11%. In fact we’ve seen almost half as many sales to date in 2024 as we had in 2022😳.
Forbes magazine had a great article this week predicting the housing market for 2024. They do cite the need for increasing inventory, which in turn will bring down prices.
"For the best possible outcome, we’d first need to see inventories of homes for sale turn considerably higher,” says Keith Gumbinger, vice president at online mortgage company HSH.com. “This additional inventory, in turn, would ease the upward pressure on home prices, leveling them off or perhaps helping them to settle back somewhat from peak or near-peak levels."
Now as we've discussed before, the Outer Banks doesn’t necessarily follow the national trend for housing. In fact, it rarely does. Increased inventory will eventually level out pricing assuming interest rates remain high. BUT unlike what I am reading on the national level, we do continue to have strong buyer demand. Lynn and I have been showing houses every weekend along with our peers. However, we are having a difficult time finding the right home(s). Some due to condition, some due to pricing, some location and a lot of them all of the above. Many sellers still think we are in 2022 where there were so many buyers, they didn’t have to pay attention to details in their listing.
Bottom Line: Prices are still strong, demand remains high, but buyers are not desperate. Homes need to show well and be marketed well in today’s market
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