Infiniti Real Estate & Development
The latest news and how it impacts the Puget Sound real estate market.
Mortgage rates have dropped to their lowest in 15 months, offering hope to prospective buyers in Seattle’s real estate market. With new listings up 9.7% and a potential Fed rate cut on the horizon, Fall 2024 presents both opportunities and uncertainties for buyers and sellers alike. Learn more about current trends and how they might impact your next move.
2024 brings relief to buyers and sellers as rates potentially hit their peak in Q4 of 2023 and are predicted to come down this year into the high 5% range or around 6%.
As we head towards winter we are seeing rates drop a bit, recently down at 7.2%. We are seeing homes sit on the market right now and this can sometimes translate into good deals for buyers.
As anticipated by many, the Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee voted on Wednesday to raise its target interest rate by 25 basis points, marking the 10th consecutive increase in its most aggressive monetary tightening campaign in four decades.
A brief dip in mortgage rates from November to January sparked hopes that the housing market might loosen up, but new data shows that both the Seattle and Puget Sound real estate markets still face challenges.
Last week the Federal Reserve raised the interest rates by the third consecutive time by .75% basis points to reach 3.25% from 0% just a short time ago. This is consistent with what they have said they plan to do and is not the last rise expected this year.
There is an overall sense that “normalcy” is returning to the market with June prices showing their smallest growth since June 2020.
As rates reached over 4.5% last week for the first time in several years, the market continued to stay smoking hot. We expect that if rates continue to rise, we will start to see a material slow down on pricing and perhaps activity, but that has not happened yet.
As 2021 comes to an end, everyone is still feeling the pandemic’s influence on the world. In the real estate market, it was challenging year to buy a home.
The key factors in this year’s market were low inventory, low interest rates, high demand and fierce competition.