Is the market slowing down?

[Marcus Auerbach]

I am watching the market like a hawk to gauge the impact of higher mortagage rates. We are scratching on 5% for 30 year fixed, 5.25% if your credit is less than 740. Owner occupied.

Yesterday one of my agents asked if I could write an offer - she had 2 clients interested in the same house, can't represent both, so I took one. We wrote a strong offer, about 10% over asking on a 350 price point, no inspection etc which is a reasonably strong offer for Milwaukee; it was their first offer so I did not want to push them. Of couse we did not score, which was not a huge surprise.

However, this was: they had over 200 showings in a day and a half; and 52 offers. I am pretty sure a lot of people did not even try in face of the competition. Those are all first time home buyers! They are not speculating. And they still very much want a house and will probably try harder next time; very few will change their mind and say we'll just stay with mom and dad... 

We don't have a housing bubble, we have a housing shortage! So we will have to build a few, it will take a while..