As the final days of God-awful weather are waning, real estate professionals are seeing a lot of mixed signals. Being ranked by multiple sources as a top-3 job market, Dallas is enjoying a very healthy influx of people seeking new employment or transfering into a very broad spectrum of industries, such as energy, technology, healthcare, manufacturing and aviation. Oddly enough (sarcasm font), they all need places to live. Interest rates can’t affect necessity buying, but it’s really affected would-be sellers who want to move but don’t necessarily need to move. We had so many people buy and sell when interest rates were in the 3’s and 4’s, buying up or down, wanting a 4th bedroom or not needing it anymore, from 2021-2022 that we’ve seen a significant decrease in new listings. That said, inventory is on the rise, but is still right around 3 months average (or equivalent to August 2020.
It’s unlikely the Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates any further. They noted an uptick in unemployment the last report, which was what they were hoping to see. Don’t expect mortgage rates to drop in the coming weeks or months, there are still a lot of forces working against slowing the economy like the unlimited printing of money. What the Fed is essentially doing right now is trying to fill a barrel with water without plugging the leak at the bottom of the barrel. Rates will go down – they always do – when the election draws near as will gas prices. It happens regardless of the blue or red M&M being in the White House.
Next month’s newsletter is going to be dominated by reminders to vote in November. I’m not going to presume to tell you for whom to vote – the Bull Moose party’s rise again is inevitable – but what I strongly urge you to do is vote YES on Proposition 4, which is the historic Homeowner Property Tax Relief Bill. It was passed by the House and Senate earlier this year, but requires a plurality of voters in November. Texas is weird, but I can our founding being based on a supreme mistrust of government, even the one based in Austin. If approved, it will spell a great deal of relief to homeowners, especially those on the entry-level end of the spectrum. Texas enjoyed a massive budget surplus last year, this tax relief will still allow for a very healthy budget surplus. Now if only we can get started on that bullet train from Dallas to Austin to Houston…
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