The new year brought revitalized real estate action in Ames during January. The market is more balanced than it’s been in years and if you’ve thought about buying or selling a home, this is the year to do it!
After a typical and seasonally slow couple of months in November and December, January picked up where October left off. New listings ticked back up to 44, which is a promising sign for the upcoming year in real estate. Last year, we had just 34 new listings in January. The median sale price for homes in Ames is also up 14% from this time last year.
It’s not just sellers that are ready and raring to go in the new year. Buyers have noticed the decreasing trend in the 30-year interest rate, which is at a 12-month low, and several buyers signed contracts on properties. While sold listings haven’t caught up yet, since it typically takes at least 30 days to close, we can see that buyers have been active since the number of active listings has decreased the last four months. There are 33 pending listings that should all close within the next month or two to bump up the number of sold listings. Increased buyer action is also evidenced by the average and median days on market being essentially cut in half from what they were in December.
What is clear for buyers, and what should be encouraging, is rates are down considerably from October 2023 and have been steady for seven consecutive weeks,” said NAR’s deputy chief economist Jessica Lautz. “Mortgage interest rates are expected to stay in the 6% range this year. While this is certainly higher than the historic lows seen in 2020 and 2021, this is lower than the historical norm (from 1971), which was 7.74%. The Federal Reserve is expected to cut the Fed Funds rate at least four times throughout 2024, which will put pressure on mortgage interest rates to lower.
Reach out to your Friedrich agent for more details about what the 2024 real estate outlook may look like and get the process started!
|
