Even the most grounded among us could be shaken up from reading the recent headlines in the news these days:
‘Is the US Housing Market About to Crash?’ -Bankrate
‘When Will the Housing Market Crash?’ -US News & World Report
‘Will US Housing Crash the Economy?’ -Bloomberg
However, the GM Maui Group—that pluperfect, premier group of realtors here on the Valley Isle—is here once again to separate fact from fiction and guide you through the riffraff so that you can see the forest from the trees and make an informed decision on your next big move.
Here are our top 3 reasons why the housing market isn’t heading for disaster:
1) Home loan standards are far more strenuous, leading to far less foreclosures
Back in 2008, lenders were handing out sizable home loans to just about anyone with a pulse, creating a wave of foreclosures that resulted in the housing bubble burst. Nowadays, however, lending standards have tightened considerably, making buyers both more-qualified and less likely to fall into foreclosure.
2) There are far less homes for sale today than there were in 2007-2010
The total number of available homes on the market has definitely been scarce these days, both on Maui and across the nation.
However, during the market crash, there were as many as 10+ months’ worth of homes for sale, which naturally led to a dip in prices as buyers were able to
In other words, it would only take around two months’ time to sell the total inventory of all Maui Nui’s available homes for sale at the current rate—pretty good news for overall prices!
3) Owners are enjoying near-record-high amounts of equity
On the whole, the gains in overall prices mentioned above have also resulted in heretofore-unseen amounts of equity, placing homeowners in a far more desirable position than they were back in the bad old days of 2007-2010. Total US homeowner equity reached over $3 trillion in the past year, more than double the equity of $1.3 trillion during the housing bubble.
Finally, it bears repeating: the marketplace isn’t anywhere near ‘crashing,’ but rather is simply normalizing back to its nominal rate of growth last seen in 2019. The pandemic created previously-uncharted rates of growth for several reasons, including the historically-low interest rates and the newfound ability for scores of workers to choose a new place to call home. With the world stabilized and things back to normal, it’s only natural the marketplace would eventually do likewise.
Don’t get it twisted, though—this is still a prime time to sell! With so few houses available to sell—and with continuous million-dollar medians for single-family homes, not to mention a new all-time high of nearly a million-dollar-median for condos—sellers would do well to capitalize on the current market trends and give the GM Maui Group a call. Buyers are certainly in luck as well, what with the market normalization and far less competition to wade through as well.
One constant in the changing trends? The GM Maui Group is still your best bet to make all those real estate dreams come true. Aloha!
