Are we in a seller’s market? A buyer’s market?

Yes.

On the surface, we are in a seller’s market. We have 2.02 months worth of Single Family Homes (SFHs) on the market in El Paso County (EPC). A balanced market is said to have 5 to 6 months inventory of homes. According to this measure, we are in a seller’s market.

However, there is nuance that should be considered here. First, affordability. While current rates are not ‘historically high’…

prices are.

It’s misguided at best to claim interest rates are in the normal range without including the higher prices impact affordability significantly. That affordability impacts the seller’s market. How much so? I’m working on a mathematical measure for this.

The other nuance to consider here is this: the stats only count the sold homes.

In the last 30 days in EPC, there have been 1,048 homes sold. However, there have been 289 withdrawn, expired or cancelled. Put another way, there have been 1/4 the number of homes sold taken off the market. Or, 21.6% of the homes actively listed in the last 30 days have been pulled off the market, expired or cancelled.

It’s important to put an asterisk * next to seller’s market and understand there is a level of nuance here not represented in the statistics, necessarily.

Stay tuned for more insights!