Fall housing outlook: Cooling prices, tighter inventory, less competition

Seattle, Portland, San Francisco

2021/10/01

This fall home price growth slows, buyers are a bit less frantic, interest rates remain low, and inventory probably remains pretty tight. According to Zillow, while annual home price growth in the U.S. ↑ 17.7% YoY in August, ↓ 1.75% MoM. The continuing threat of COVID-19 variants paired with simmering fears of inflation is two primary factors that keep rates low for the time being. Comparing the inventory to a few months' ago, things are really slowing down, but the norm and the avg are still going strong. With inventory remaining tight, buyers may need to temper fall expectations slightly and expand their search criteria a bit to get a deal this season. On the opposite side of the transaction, there’s the issue of realistic asking prices on homes since the market is one cannot become overconfident.