Just a quick note from an Ohio Real Estate Agent, Appraiser, and Investor. Our market is a little bit of a tale of two cities. Some areas are moving along normally: very generally areas under $300k that appeal to younger folks. On the other side, the inventory for $400k and above is skyrocketing. I just did an appraisal in a mid-$400's market and the housing supply is up from 1-3 month average last year to now at 19 months. Another neighborhood went from sub-30-days at this point last year to currently 7 months.
My appraisal business is also changing significantly. At this point in the year, for the past five or so years, we would be doing about 70% purchases, and 30% refi's. With the low rates we expected to see more refi's but it has almost completely flipped and we are doing mostly refi's. The number of purchases we are doing are down by about 40%.
Someone smarter than me will have to figure out if this is temporary, and some pent-up demand will flood the market this fall/next year, or if this is the beginning of something more protracted.
