The past month has been epic skiing. Though the snow was slow in the earlier season, February was true to us and brought a great storm cycle! It was good to get into steep terrain and float on some deep powder.
Here is a link to the Colorado Group Realty February newsletter. It has good insight into the market from our CEO, Steve Goldman.
The news and opinions I have been studying over the past month is pretty far ranging. From what I can tell, there are a few camps of thought.
One is the Inflation Camp. These people think that home prices are going to come down, or stagnate, due to prices of goods going up. When the price of our energy, food, and clothes goes up, we have less money to spend on housing.
The second is the Moratorium Camp. These persons think that the market is going to be like the 2008 crash. Where those persons who have a rent or mortgage moratorium lifted and they have to pay their owed monies, thus putting them in foreclosure. From what I can tell, this will happen but should not be a ‘sky is falling’ moment. There are not nearly as many homes under water as 2008.
And the third camp is the ‘sky is the limit’ camp, where home buying momentum will continue for awhile to come.
My perception of Steamboat is the third camp for 2021. Having ales with brokers and talking about the market, we are seeing a slow down in momentum. This really doesn’t mean much until we see what Summer brings. The slow down could just be there is no inventory to buy so buyers are waiting on their property or waiting for Summer inventory, which is typically larger than Winter.
If interest rates are still low, it will remain easy to buy real estate.
As well, home building has lagged for since the Recession. Millennials have not wanted to buy until now, which makes sense. They are late to start families and that is happening now. The move from the city to the burbs is a lot about making babies over COVID.
Between Gen X going into retirement and looking for another home or two, big corporations like Zillow buying homes, and demographic trends of Millennials, Housing will be a crunch until inventory picks up and interest rates go up.