APRIL 14, 2022 – The housing market has been incredibly strong since the pandemic started two years ago. Prices are increasing at a record pace. The supply of houses for sale is at an all-time low. Of course, what goes up, must come down. But, when…Tops in financial markets take awhile to form. Bottoms are usually a spike panic low – a V-shape.
We are starting to hear of markets where list prices are being lowered in mass. With mortgage rates up from around 3% last Fall to 5% this week, the number of potential buyers has dropped by many millions.
It will take awhile for the momentum to slow, stop, and then reverse. But, the signs of this occurring are in place and starting to mount.
One leading indicator I follow peaked in the 1st quarter of 2006. This was a full 2.5 years before the Lehman Brothers event the public recalls as being the start of the last recession. Of course, the recession started in 2005 and 2006 and Lehman Brothers (and others that went under) was the end result of the decline that had already occurred. In fact, this indicator bottomed in the 1st Quarter of 2009 and turned up from there.
This same indicator peaked in early December 2021. It has declined 29% since then. That doesn’t mean home prices will decline this much. (For perspective, the leading indicator declined about 85% and house prices declined about 30%.) It just suggests a peak in the housing market is on the horizon. The Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index topped out at the end of the 2nd Quarter in 2006. Just a few months after the leading indicator suggested it would. I think the current momentum is too strong to have prices turn down this year. In fact, it will be tough to have prices turn down next year. But, it is now a decent chance of occurring.
Economists will confirm that as the housing market goes, so goes the overall economy. If the housing market slows done and rolls over, expect the same for the national economy.

Shalom,

The Mann