To answer the question if there will be a real estate crash, we have to look at numbers and not emotion. Every morning, I start my workday by pulling some data from the MLS and putting it on my tracker sheet. I love Excel. This really helps me to understand not just what the market is doing citywide, but also on a more micro neighborhood level. I also weekly look at what interest rates are doing. These numbers are absolutely vital for any real estate agent to really understand the market that they serve.
Plus, it’s nice to see black and white numbers and not just the feelings of what others may think is going on. I’ve never been one to really follow the crowd. I like to make my own way. So what are the numbers showing us? Well, typically this is the time that we see a decline in moving. People are hunkering down and enjoying the holiday season with family and friends.
Buying a House in December
We moved into our current house a few weeks before Christmas, and I totally understand what people talk about with the craziness of it all. Not to mention that we went without heat for an entire week. Yes. We just moved in and our furnace completely went out and we had to have it replaced. Yep. Gotta love historic homes, right? We got heat Christmas Eve and celebrated by making cookies. Crazy times indeed. But let’s get back to the market.
Pueblo Real Estate Is Heating Up
In every zip code, I’m not really seeing that slow down, maybe a little tiny bit. Homes on the market and selling generally remains really steady. Yep. All across the board. Well, those numbers remain steady, the days on market are slightly shifting to less. Yes. Homes are going just a touch faster. Sometimes in the second month, typically 45 to 55 days. Some zip codes, even less than that. I am seeing some homes only on the market for a couple of weeks. Yes. I know. It’s not the same as Colorado Springs with their median days on market of five day.
But for Pueblo, it’s still fast with no signs of slowing down. Now let’s talk about price. While most areas are seeing a really steady increase. I’ve seen a jump in Pueblo west. If you’re thinking about moving out there, you want to get on that sooner than later. If you’re thinking about moving, just in general, you’ll want to jump on it and see some quick equity gain as soon as you move into the house. That leads me to talking about what I foresee in 2022. For our city, I don’t really see any cooling off, but quite the opposite.
There are some industry leaders who are expanding and bringing jobs. Well, those jobs bring demand for housing. I know that Pueblo doesn’t have the greatest reputation in Colorado, but the rumblings of change have started. I know this isn’t about economic growth, but really the economic growth is synonymous with housing growth. More people, more demand for housing, higher prices. Also include in the mix people coming from the Colorado Springs market who are looking for cheaper housing.
2022 Real Estate Crash Prediction
With those two things, we will see that continued growth. I think Pueblo is poised for a complete comeback if we could just get, get out of our own way and allow it to happen. I know personally, even in my own life, it’s difficult. But with all of this change, we will only see house prices continue to rise.
No, I don’t think there’s going to be a real estate crash. Maybe after a couple of years, we’ll see some more modest gains, but nothing like we experienced in 2008. And that goes for the country as a whole. I think we are just heating up.
I know it might not feel like it, but the numbers that’s where they’re seeming to trend and numbers don’t lie. The U.S as a whole, I think we will continue to see the quickly moving market for maybe another couple of years. Certainly, certainly for 2022. While the FEDs talk about rising rates, I don’t really see this affecting our real estate market much.
It might modestly slow things down, but nothing significantly.
In October we saw interest rates go up. But then in November there was some volatility. I think the powers that be are playing around, trying to figure out where that good place is for the market. I think we will see interest rates steadily go up. There’s no doubt about that. It’s hard to say exactly how much though, as we are in unprecedented times as the FEDs are trying to navigate all of that.
Don’t wait!
So I think there’s going to continue to be more ups and downs as the FEDs work through all of that. For every 1% of increase in interest rate, you lose 10% of buying power. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that 1% increase over the next year, but thankfully we aren’t in a market that Zillow has messed up.
Here in Pueblo, if you’re thinking about moving, you’ll want to get in on that sooner than later. There won’t be a fire sale from some big real estate crash.
The longer you wait, the more prices will increase and the more interest rates will increase. Thus, you won’t get the same amount of house that you want. If you’re wanting to buy or sell and curious about more exact numbers for an area, an area in Pueblo, please reach out to me.