Effect of Improving Rates Already Showing

In life, there are two guarantees: death and taxes.

In real estate, there are near guarantees. In the month of December, slowing market activity, reduced inventory, and home prices down from earlier year highs would fall into that category. And for the most part, the Central Oregon real estate market held true to the trend. However, here are some deviations we saw last month: 

• Redmond experienced an 18% increase in new homes being listed. The last time Redmond saw any kind of increase was Dec ‘20 and that was only 3%. 

• Bend experienced a 21% increase in homes going under contract. A trend last seen in Dec ‘17 where a 1.5% increase was seen. While I would say this increase is due to a couple reasons, improving mortgage rates last month is definitely at the top of the list.

• Sisters saw a massive one month median price increase (21%), but that’s to be expected when nearly 30% of the 15 homes sold were above the million dollar mark.

With the potential for mortgage rate improvements in the upcoming year, there’s considerable optimism in the real estate industry. Similarly, those whose decisions impact rate direction are proceeding with cautious optimism. If reality does indeed align with the 2024 rate predictions, a stronger-than-usual uptick in pendings, similar to what was observed in December, wouldn’t come as a surprise. This market shift also signifies that strategies favoring buyers and/or sellers could become less or no longer effective, and short-term opportunities will likely become a thing of the past.