If you live in Cape Coral you know a thing or two about hurricanes. When the weather man says the word “hurricane”, we pay attention, not panic but pay attention. Hurricanes can be scary, but the far majority show up on the radar and dissipate before hitting shore so we cant panic every time they see a hurricane but we’ve seen the damage of bad they can be, so we pay attention. Just like we track a hurricane, if it’s picking up speed and size, the tracking pattern and we watch….and continue to watch. The days prior to the hurricane can be eerie, “the calm before the storm”, it will likely blow through with some wind and rain and be nothing, but that unknown is the scary part. This is a lot like what’s happening in the Cape Coral housing market right now and all over Sout West Florida, its different from a hurricane in that it plays out over many months and sometimes years but things are changing quickly.
The housing forecasters have been announcing massive changes, check out a few articles:
Bloomberg home inventory soars at record pace with us buyers pulling back
REDFIN reports a growing share of home listings are stale…
Realtor.com, a new normal? The housing market just seriously shifted….
It appears the top of the Cape Coral housing market came in around April or May 2022. Spring 2022 rates jumped way up, many buyers hit the pause button and now news of a recession looming has buyers taking it more cautious. Like in a hurricane many of us who watch the housing market close are paying extra close attention as new data each month comes out.
Here’s how recessions typically hitting the housing. Consumers start spending less money, Companies start reporting losses then layoffs start, when people get laid off, mortgage defaults go up, if lots of foreclosures start happening, inventory grows consumer sentiment goes way down and ultimately prices crater. This is a cycle and takes a while to play out. Not all recessions are the same or severe, this could be a slow down and home prices stay stagnant for a while or slow appreciation.
The unknown factor is always what will the government do in response. Will they allow it to pass through and takes it course? Will they stretch out mortgages 40 years,50 years or beyond lowering monthly payments, could they even push prices higher, of course it doesn’t solve the problem, just delays it but government is good at kicking the can down the road.
Real Estate trends, meaning, the data we get each month is 30-90 days old, its lagged. The best way to follow real estate and know if the market is trending up, down or sideways is to get set up on an email market watcher. TMListings.com offers this service for free, all that’s needed is a name and email, search criteria and the MLS automates the rest. I’ve personally used this free tool for many years, I have foreclosure searches, land searches, house searches, various city searches. You can watch solds, pendings, actives, the program will email you activity in real time. As you watch homes drop in price, or new listings going up in price you’ll know what the market is doing.
Are you buying a home in Cape Coral, The good news, inventory is going up, sales are slowing down. The frenzy we saw the last 2 years is gone. Its not uncommon to see homes sit on the market longer times, this means you can offer below list price, don’t be shy to try. The bad news…rates are much higher.
If you’re thinking of listing your Cape Coral home, I suggest sooner than later, look at the comps in your area, you may want to consider listing well below your competition to get it sold quickly. If prices continue to trend down, you could start chasing a declining market, you need to stay ahead of it. For example, if a home in your Cape Coral neighborhood is listed for $500k, you might want to list for $460-480k depending on how well your home presents compared to your competition just to stay ahead of the decline, if that’s where were heading. The best way to determine value is have TMlistings.com do a free market Valuation.
Here at TMlistings.com we don’t try to hype you to make a decision to buy or sell, we give you the data that’s available at the time of your request and offer our opinion based on years of experience, no pressure or pestering nonstop text and phone calls, we don’t operate that way. You know what best for you, were here to support your decision, whether that’s supporting you purchasing a home and making sure you get a great value or selling a home and making sure you walk away with the most money possible, or if now isn’t the right to, to provide you the data so you can make the best decision for yourself.
We’re hear to help you achieve your goals. Please reach out to us and let us know how we can help you.
We are a foreclosure liquidator, we’ve sold thousands! If you want to be emailed when a new foreclosure is coming on the market ask to be added to our email list.
Thanks for reading.
