Houses aren’t moving very fast on the open market, so Americans will take some time to add value to their homes for the next big home-buying run.
NOV 1, 2022
No doubt about it, the U.S. housing market is hitting the brakes hard. In its latest release, The National Association of Realtors (NAR) stated its Pending Home Sales Index, based on signed contracts, fell 10.2% to 79.5 in September.
With high-interest rates tamping down homebuying activity, Americans who otherwise may put their homes up for sale may wind up staying put.
But that doesn’t mean they won’t be active.
More real estate experts say that given the slowdown in homebuying activity, homeowners will take the opportunity to build more value into their homes by engaging in major remodeling and renovation projects.
“With the recent rate hike, we have seen a slowdown in new construction of residential homes. When this happens people tend to stay longer in their current houses and spend money remodeling or rebuilding it,” said Constructo chief executive officer Yuri Galeev.
Another issue vexing potential buyers is that even the cost of buying a fixer-upper has gotten out of hand.
“As more and more people become interested in "fixer-uppers", the cost of purchasing a run-down home is on the rise,” said The Luxury Pergola’s co-founder and real estate expert Stacy Elmore. “This means that people are starting to see more value in renovating their current homes than in buying a new one.”
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