Rental Market Strong, Still Buyers Out There

So I haven't written since the Fed last raised rates, does that mean we've been too busy to write or that nothing has been going on. It's been more of the former and less of the latter, however, we've been working a lot on rentals lately.

The entire rental market is incredibly strong. It's really no surprise that with home prices as high as they are as well as mortgage rates higher than they've been in a few years that there are an increasing number of people turning to and/or remaining (read, very few rentals are coming online so rental inventory is extremely low) in the rental market. The higher end renters are definitely spurring demand and thus putting pressure on each level of the rental market. For you Reganomics fans, call it a trickle down effect.

I've had a rental property in Redwood Shores fall out of contract three times (through no fault of the property, all personal reasons for which they all forfeited their security deposits), but each time it would be re-rented within a couple of days and with multiple applications as well. I could have rented that place four or five times over, there are that many people looking to rent there.

On the sales side, clearly we've seen a slowdown. You don't have to be in the business to see that the FOR SALE signs in your neighborhoods are staying up just a bit longer than they did last year. The truth of the matter is each property is no longer getting that slight premium over the last property sold, but sellers still have that mindset. Properly priced (not necessarily lower priced) and turn-key (people no longer want to do any work) homes are still selling and fairly quickly at that. Buyers are definitely still in the market, they just no longer have the urgency that they once had and realize that the choice is now theirs. We are now in a Buyer's market and they can afford to wait for the right home at the right price.

It is still a very healthy market, a bit more normalized and Realtors now have to really earn our money. It's good for us and there will be a shake out which is good for the industry as a whole. So put your agents to work and we'll work for you.