Bryan

Hello and welcome back to Change and the Market, your weekly look at the changing real estate market. I'm your host, Bryan, joined once again by the other host, Mr. Chris Masiello. Chris, we took the week off, but we're back. How have you been?

Chris

Hey, Bryan. Good to be with you. And I missed being with our community last week while taking a little vacation. So I'm excited to be here.

Bryan

Awesome. Let's get right into it since we have had some time off. How have things changed in the market over the past two weeks?

Chris

Well, as most people who know me know, I don't really take a lot of time off. So I was doing a lot of research last week and just kind of getting the opportunity to sort of, you know, scan the environment and see what's going on. So, there are a couple of things. I read this article about, "Do you buy real estate when the market's correcting?" And the answer to that was yes. And it was written by a financial adviser.

And simply being that real estate over time really outperforms almost every other class of investment—that was basically the conversation. And then there was another reading from several different sources talking about how whatever minor correction housing was experiencing is pretty much over.

And, you know, when you take a look at where interest rates are—they continue to decline. Now at the retail mortgage level, you take a look at what's going on with inflation. There's a lot of conversation about how we're going to start to see much better inflation numbers, which will ultimately lead to further reductions in interest rates.

And so, when you take a look at all that, I think it falls pretty well into what we were talking about a couple of weeks ago in our last episode. We were just talking about how a slightly higher interest rate is a lot less expensive than a more expensive house.

And I was looking at appreciation rates across the country, and New England continues to do well. You know, it's somewhere between flat and 5% up, year over year—better than some other parts of the country. You don't really see a lot of declines in other parts of the country, but we're doing better than most.

And you take that and then you fold in the fact that you've got the millennials now fully in the market—there are 62 million millennials that are competing against 55 million baby boomers. Now, there are some other demographic groups in there as well; however, the millennials and the baby boomers are the two largest.

And so that competition for housing—if you want to look at it that way—is going to continue, which is going to continue to keep values not only stable but increasing. I know that the inclination is well, there's been a slight slowdown in the market and that kind of makes everybody nervous, which I get.

At the same time, though, this is the time where you really want to be in because you're going to be getting things—like we were talking about a couple of weeks ago—where pricing is not going up at a double-digit pace. And so just about everything really leans in that direction.

Spring inventory is starting to come up, so we can see that throughout the market. We see it in our company. That inventory is coming up. But frankly, it's being bought just as fast as it's coming on the market. And so getting in now is really critical.

Bryan

So then that would, I guess, be your advice for people in the industry or not even necessarily in the industry, kind of just in general for anybody either looking to buy, looking to sell—is to move forward now as opposed to waiting.

Chris

Yeah, absolutely. And that's a really good point, too. I don't think it matters whether you're buying your second home, or whether you're buying an investment property. I don't think any of that really matters. Buying your primary residence, of course, is probably not going to get much better than it is now. Even though, again, if you got slightly higher interest rates, you can refinance out of that later. That's a temporary condition.

You know, it's funny—the interest rate is a temporary condition, but what you paid for your house is not. This is what we're talking about, but it just kind of occurred to me as a different way to explain it to people. So maybe that'll be helpful.

Bryan

Yeah, that is a good point. The interest rate can change. You can refinance other things that we've talked about before, but when you're purchasing your house, whatever price you pay at the point of purchase is the price of the house. Things aren't... you can't really reassess that years down the road.

Chris

No, I'm unaware of a refund program.

Bryan

Yeah, then so wrapping up here. What kind of advice do you just have generally, considering kind of the state of the market, but translating that into everyday life? What is your advice?

Chris

Well, I think what comes to mind is fortune favors the bold. And I think that although I wouldn't necessarily call re-engaging in the housing market a super bold move—I guess in the backdrop, though, of some of the news you hear, it would probably feel that way. And so I think that those who take advantage of this in-between period are going to really be grateful for jumping into the market now and will be able to look back on it—they'll be grateful, because again, you've got so much pressure on inventory and that's just going to continue. And that pressure, although it does create multiple offers and things like that, it also creates a certain sort of tension in the market. But that tension's also what's keeping value up. And that tension is also what's making it a good investment.

Bryan

Fantastic stuff, as always. Chris, thank you once again for joining me. And that's going to do it for this week's episode of Change and the Market. As always, if you're enjoying our show, make sure you like, subscribe, follow us on whatever platform you're watching or listening on, and join us back here next week for another brand-new episode of Change and the Market.

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