US Housing Market Posts $2.3 Trillion Drop, Biggest Since 2008

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, Lauren Boebert, who claims this is yet another example of {something}

Wealth

US Housing Market Posts $2.3 Trillion Drop, Biggest Since 2008

San Francisco and New York are slumping as the pandemic boom fizzles out, but migration to Florida has boosted Miami.

By Paulina Cachero
February 22, 2023 at 4:16 PM EST

The value of the US housing market shrunk by the most since the 2008 as the pandemic boom fizzled out. ... After peaking at $47.7 trillion in June, the total value of US homes declined by $2.3 trillion, or 4.9%, in the second half of 2022, according to real estate brokerage Redfin. That’s the largest drop in percentage terms since the 2008 housing crisis, when home values slumped by 5.8% from June to December.

Homebuyers, already facing record-high prices, took an additional hit from mortgage rates that more than doubled last year. With less competition in the market, the median US home sale price was $383,249 last month, down from a peak of $433,133 in May.

“The housing market has shed some of its value, but most homeowners will still reap big rewards from the pandemic housing boom,” said Redfin economics research lead Chen Zhao, adding that the total value of homes remains roughly $13 trillion higher than it was in February 2020.

{snip a chart}

To be sure, home prices are not collapsing. In December, the total value of US houses was still 6.5% higher than it was a year earlier.

{snip}

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Only a 5% hit? I figured that the hit would be much, much bigger. I see on YouTube comments that

range from 'oh, no, the market is fine!' to 'run, run, run away, don't buy anything yet!'.

I expect that a lot of kids (college age and up), plus retirees looking to move to sunnier locations, plus just families looking for a place to live will be happier, now that these insane prices in some areas are coming down a little bit. Now of course if you're on the side of selling property, well, I don't know what to say, other than Karma has got you. I went thru this process when I had my first house, and when I retired, I wanted to right-size my home, but then the market collapsed (in 2008, give or take). I had to wait years for things to stabilize but to be fair, I did score on a nice home within 1 mile away (what I wanted) at a very decent price.

I hope that those that have adjustable rate mortgages and such will be okay, get relief somehow perhaps by refinancing etc., if their lending institutions are still loaning funds. I'm still hearing that the markets are still in a tizzy.

[underpants]

2. Our house was crazy over valued for a while

According to Zillow, Red Fin, and other on line sites. I know that’s not fully accurate but they showed a 15-20% increase at one point.

[Farmer-Rick]

3. I don't know why Zillow is always so bad at pricing the market here

My neighbor's property sold for half a million. The guy down the road sold his old farm for $600,000. But Zillow had my property and those 2 properties valued at around $280,000.00 each and I have half again more land than those smaller places.

Zillow has now listed those 2 properties at their sale value but mine's still at $280,000. I hope the tax man uses zillow's valuations for my property taxes.