The current buyer activity and its impact on your real estate goals.
Today, I’ll discuss the current state of buyer activity in the housing market. Even though the housing market has calmed down compared to the frenzied pace of the last few years, it’s important to note that it’s not stagnant. Buyer activity remains robust. The ShowingTime Showing Index measures how frequently buyers are touring homes.
To understand the current situation better, let’s examine the chart at 0:45 in the video, which illustrates buyer activity trends over time. To provide context, we’ll compare this to buyer traffic from 2017 through May 2023. The chart distinguishes pre-pandemic showings in gray, highlighting the seasonality in real estate. In those normal years, buyer activity typically peaked in the first half of each year during the spring’s peak homebuying season and slowed down towards the end of the year.
Now, let’s focus on the blue section. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, it disrupted this trend as the market reacted to the uncertainty—this period marked the “unicorn years” of housing, characterized by record-low mortgage rates and soaring buyer demand.
“Buyer activity remains robust.”
However, even during this time, similar seasonal trends persisted but at much higher levels. Now, in 2023 (the blue section right after the pink), we see a decrease in traffic compared to the previous months when showings were at an all-time high. However, this isn’t a sharp decline in demand; it’s a gradual return to normal seasonality, with a 10% decline in May, as explained in the ShowingTime report.
This decline aligns with typical seasonal patterns. To emphasize, it’s not a significant drop. If we zoom in on the chart, focusing on May data for the last five years, it becomes evident that buyer demand remains strong, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
For sellers, this is good news as there are still plenty of buyers actively touring homes. The only limiting factor is the limited supply of homes for sale.
It’s crucial not to underestimate the current activity in the market. If your house isn’t listed, it won’t be seen by the numerous buyers eager to make a purchase. To get started, please call me at 1-800-722-2585 or send me an email. I’m looking forward to assisting you.
