A Rather Strong Start to the Year

Like any industry, real estate professionals enjoy gathering to discuss best practices for marketing homes, updates on mortgage rates, and sharing their day-to-day experiences with market activity. Regarding that last topic, it’s common right now to hear agents talk about listings lingering on the market and buyer hesitation—understandably so. Over the past couple of years, high prices and high rates have changed the market dynamics, which is probably not news to anyone reading this.

What's interesting is what the numbers are saying. It’s true that overall activity levels are lower, but they continue to improve. All three counties saw new listings and homes going under contract at levels that were either as expected or even stronger for this time of year. Even if it doesn’t feel like it, the data shows that overall market activity is higher than it was a year ago. In other words, we are witnessing a stable and gradually growing local housing market.

It's like before-and-after photos on a weight loss journey—you might not notice the change every day, but when you look back at where you started, the progress is clear.

What happens moving forward will certainly be interesting. It’s safe to say that there has been a mix of emotions running through the economy over the past few weeks. Recent discussions about delayed tariffs had the market—especially those affecting mortgage rates—bracing for the worst. With the tariff delay decided at the last minute, mortgage rates ultimately remained relatively unchanged at around 7%.

In the meantime, we continue to see new inventory hitting the market faster than homes are going under contract—a pattern similar to this time last year. If this trend continues, available inventory will keep growing, and sellers will need to focus on the details to sell their homes more quickly. Does that mean prices will fall sharply? Probably not, but we might see more softening, similar to what we saw in 2024.