What trends should I be aware of?

A few things are worth watching right now. Inventory levels show whether buyers or sellers have the leverage. Days on market and price reductions show how fast homes are moving. Mortgage rates affect what buyers can afford each month. Insurance and property taxes are also a big factor in Houston affordability. These trends can look very different from one neighborhood to the next, so check them for your specific area. Are you looking at this as a buyer or a seller? Happy to answer questions anytime. David Smith, your local agent advisor with Compass, (346) 569-2583.

Hi Patti! I think one of the biggest things to watch right now is inventory. In a lot of markets, buyers have more homes to choose from, and that's changing how homes are being priced and sold. I would also pay attention to how long homes are sitting on the market, how many sellers are reducing their prices, and what homes are actually selling for compared to their asking price. But here's something I find really interesting right now. Affordability! We recently looked at our market here in Southwest Florida and realized that median home prices in some of our areas are back to where they were in late 2021 and early 2022. Sounds great for buyers, right? Well, not exactly. Mortgage rates are roughly double what they were in late 2021, and the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation, is about 20% higher than it was back then. Add in higher insurance, property taxes, and other expenses, and buying that same priced home today can cost considerably more each month. So here's the big question I've been asking. Where does affordability take us from here? Do home values need to come down further? Will lower interest rates eventually help? Will incomes catch up? Or will it be some combination of all three? Here in Southwest Florida, we've seen values decline from their 2022 peak, but I don't believe we've officially seen the bottom of this market yet. How much further prices may go is really hard to predict. And what's interesting is that homes priced correctly are still selling! Buyers are out there, but with more inventory to choose from, they're being much more selective. I think the most important thing to understand is that real estate is very local. What's happening here in Southwest Florida could be completely different from what's happening in Houston. My advice would be to watch inventory, recent sales, price reductions, days on market, and especially affordability. Those are the things I believe will help tell us where this market is heading next.

Hi Pattie, here are three trends you should watch closely: inventory, pricing, and buying leverage. Inventory has increased, giving buyers more choices and creating a more balanced market. Prices have been relatively stable in some areas, which means sellers need to be realistic about pricing and condition. Pay close attention to mortgage rates, property taxes, insurance costs, and new construction incentives because all four can significantly affect affordability and competition in the Houston market. The biggest takeaway is that Houston's market is becoming a market where buyers can be more selective, and sellers have to compete more aggressively for attention. Brenda Ashby | REALTOR® | JohnHart Real Estate | DRE License # 01700249

Hi Patti! If you're asking about real estate trends, the biggest things I'd pay attention to are mortgage rates, inventory levels, home prices, days on market, and buyer demand in your specific area. National trends can be useful for context, but real estate is highly local. What's happening in Houston can be very different from what's happening in another part of Texas or even another neighborhood nearby. If you're thinking about buying or selling, I'd focus on the recent sales and active competition in your particular neighborhood. That will give you a much better picture of what buyers and sellers are experiencing right now. Juan Picos Real Estate Agent JohnHart Real Estate

If you’re watching the Ventura County real estate market, I’d pay attention to a few major trends right now: mortgage rates remain elevated, with the 30-year fixed rate recently reaching about 6.71%, which is keeping affordability tight. Buyers are gaining negotiating power as homes take longer to sell and more sellers compete for attention; Ventura County is currently around 3.1 months of inventory, with the average home taking about 79 days on the market. Prices are mixed rather than simply crashing—different data sources show relatively small year-over-year changes, so neighborhood and price point matter a lot. For sellers, pricing correctly, presentation, and marketing are becoming increasingly important, while buyers should be looking for opportunities to negotiate price, credits, repairs, and potentially rate buydowns. Overall, I’d describe the market as more balanced and negotiable than the highly competitive markets we saw a few years ago, but not a market where buyers should assume prices are going to suddenly collapse.

Patti, rather than ask you to narrow it down, here are the four numbers that actually tell you what your market is doing and what each one means. Days on market for homes like yours, in your zip code, over the last ninety days. Rising means buyers have choices. Falling means they do not. This is the earliest signal of the four. Percent of list price at closing. Most people watch the median sale price, but the sale-to-list ratio moves first, and it tells you whether your asking price is a starting point or a ceiling. Months of inventory. Roughly speaking, under three months favors sellers and over six favors buyers. Plenty of markets are sitting somewhere in between right now, and it varies enormously from one neighborhood to the next. Seller-paid closing costs, and how often they are showing up. When sellers start paying two or three percent toward the buyer's costs, that is a real price cut that never shows up in the median sale price. It is the most underrated number on this list. Alla made the right point that a national headline rarely describes one Houston zip code, and that is more true now than it has been in years. Pull all four for your zip code specifically, not for Harris County and not for Texas. Here is my offer. Tell me whether you are buying or selling and roughly where in Houston, and I will connect you with a good agent there. I work in California, so I am not going to pretend to know the Houston submarkets or the property tax and contract quirks, but I keep a network of agents around the country and I will find you someone who actually sells in your zip code and can pull those four numbers for you. My name is Zoltan Peresztegi, and I would rather hand you to the right person than have you guess from a headline. Zoltan

Hello Patti. If you are a member of NAR (National Association of REALTORS®), then I suggest checking out https://www.narrpr.com/. A data platform built for REALTORS®, RPR® (Realtors Property Resource®) puts powerful property data at your fingertips, making it easy to provide insightful expertise. Know the market with RPR®'s local data and trends, providing a clear view of what’s really happening in the market. Whether you are a member of NAR or not, https://www.nar.realtor/reports is publicly available for information about the Association's activities, housing, and the real estate industry. There, you can also visit NAR's Research & Statistics, Research Reports, and Research Reports by Title pages for more. As a REALTOR®, we pay enough to NAR at the national, state, and local levels, so we might as well use these resources to our advantage. While it is debatable among real estate practitioners whether paying annual dues to NAR is more economical than paying individual subscriptions to similar services and platforms, if you are a member of NAR, use it to your fullest extent to help answer questions like yours: "What trends should I be aware of?"

Patti, you are going to have to be a lot more specific regarding what you are asking here. Keith Jean-Pierre Managing Principal The Dapper Agents Real Estate Operations in ALL 50 States

Patti, I can't tell from your post whether you're buying or selling, and that changes which trends actually matter. If you're selling, watch how long homes like yours sit before they get an offer, and whether sellers around you are chipping in toward the buyer's closing costs. If you're buying, your own payment and what you can qualify for matter more than any headline, because a national story rarely matches one Houston zip code. The most useful thing you can do is ask a local agent to send you every sale within a mile of you from the last ninety days. I'd rather point you there than guess, since I'm licensed in California and Texas has its own contract and property tax quirks that someone licensed there should explain. Reply with which side of the deal you're on and I'll go deeper. Alla Novytska, Realtor®, JohnHart Real Estate, DRE #02254775