CRYSTAL, Minn. — Much like the dark skies Minnesota has been seeing lately, the housing market is also in a bit of turmoil.
“Things have changed dramatically in the last three years since I've been here,” said Mallory Johnson, a real estate agent with Britney Schall Team.
The past few years have certainly not been kind to the market, and it feels like endless issues are impacting the market. Choose what you like. Johnson has seen the problems it causes.
“Interest rates went up and everyone stopped buying. Interest rates went up to eight degrees and people stopped,” she said. “And now you need $300,000 to get something move-in ready.”
To make matters worse, there's a shortage of available housing stock, Johnson said.
“From July until now, it's been the coldest temperature I've ever seen,” she said. “That was bad.”
This is a problem faced by many home buyers and real estate agents.
“There's a lot of competition in the first and second ring suburbs,” said Andrew Weaverdink, owner of North Coast Realty.
Wieberdinck is sympathetic to those struggles and has seen them himself.
It's a trend across the country, with home purchases at their lowest level in 30 years, according to the National Association of Realtors. That's no surprise to Wieberdinck.
“People started to shy away from buying houses because everyone thought and believed that interest rates were going to go down, and they realized that current interest rates were simply unprecedented and not normal,” he said. It's because they don't realize it.”
Here at Metro, we're a little different, but not that different.
“Sales are definitely down, but there are still buyers,” said Minnesota Realtors housing analyst David Arbitt. “In fact, I’ve heard there are multiple offers even now.”
Arbitt said prices are not currently at 30-year lows, but more like 10- to 12-year lows, but the same trends both real estate agents talked about are occurring across the state.
However, it is not without hope.
“Another silver lining is that we've seen a big change in interest rates, which have gone from over 8% to 6.5%, 6.5% and so on, and that's having a big impact on affordability. ” Arbit said.
For these real estate agents, there is hope here too, that people might be able to live in their dream homes.
“I'm optimistic and hopeful that interest rates will remain within this healthy range,” Johnson said. “I think as long as we stay there, we’ll be fine.”
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