What are your plans?  Gardening?  Picnic? Brunch? Below are some fun “low cost or no cost” activities or places to visit this Mother’s Day Weekend.  Plan on crowds in most places with this wonderful out of the ordinary weather!  Oh – my sunglasses and peonies are loving it!

As for Real Estate we are in a Seller’s Squeeze Market. 

“Today’s buyers have made their peace with today’s interest rates.  They aren’t happy about them, but they understand their ability to refinance down the road when interest rates eventually fall.  Sellers on the other hand have NOT made their peace with trading in their 3% Pandemic interest rate for a 6.5% rate.  And now that housing prices have risen so dramatically since the beginning of the year, I can’t imagine that helps the equation.  Unless someone HAS to sell, most sellers are looking at an equation along the lines of:  If I sell, I’ll be paying a substantially higher interest rate, and buying at a relatively higher price point***.  Ironically, this dynamic only sets the stage for the snowball effect to gain even more momentum:  Fewer sellers = higher prices = fewer sellers = higher prices, and so on.

King County has grown by 135,368 residents since 2019 (+6.05%), Snohomish County has grown by 45,850 residents (+5.62%), and Pierce County has grown by 50,365 (+5.54%).  With a growing buyer pool that’s now made their peace with today’s higher interest rates; against a Seller Squeeze due to those higher interest rates AND higher housing prices, this spiral points to even higher prices down the road.  If you think lower interest rates will solve the Seller Squeeze…  Well, let me put it this way:  Buyers are going to be ecstatic when rates are 5.5%…but will sellers be as ecstatic?  Not as much.  Because 5.5% is still much higher than 3%.  Thus, even in a declining interest rate environment, the snowball effect could create even more momentum and drive prices higher with increased buyer purchasing power due to falling interest rates.

I understand that sellers also get to take advantage of the higher price point on the sell side of things, but that only works out if the seller is moving-down.  If a seller is moving-up (which a majority of them are) and the market has appreciated 10%…well, 10% on a $500k home equals $50k equity gain, but if the home they’re looking at started off at $750,000, then even though they made an extra $50k on their own home, they’re spending $75k more on their new one, which is why rising housing prices exacerbate the Seller Squeeze. “

Thank You Kyle Bergquist; Branch Manager – APM Puget Sound Group Ballard Office for providing me these stats and story of what we are seeing in todays market.

I am very excited about the possibilities of being a buyer.  I am looking almost every day dreaming and scheming for my future purchase of my own home! (Please Birch Bay Condo lets Sell!) MLS#2055324 – Selling my Birch Bay Condo will give me my down payment and ability to buy a bungalow to call my own!  If you know of anyone looking for a total turn key place in Birch Bay WA – please pass my contact information along!
View more details HERE!