Housing Market SECRETS They Don't Want YOU to Know

This current housing market sucks. Now I know what you might be thinking. You might be saying, Sean, but you're a real estate agent. You can't say that the market sucks. I absolutely can't, right? And if you're talking to other real estate agents who are saying, yeah, it's a great time to buy. It's a great time to sell. Then run for the hills, right? Because that is not true. I may be a real estate professional, but I also truly understand the plight that buyers and sellers are going through right now. I completely understand how they're feeling because I'm talking to you and I myself feel it as well. So that's why in this video, I'm going to be talking about what is happening in this market. Why does it actually suck? And what you can do moving forward, going in to 2025. And look, I'm not going to do any kind of fancy edits. I'm not going to do any kind of jump cuts or anything like that. No fancy B-roll. I'm just going to talk to you straight from the heart as a real estate professional who truly understands what you're going through. So let's start really at the beginning, which is home prices, interest rates, and housing inventory, right? Those are the three things that we're going to be looking at. And when you think about home prices, what comes to your mind? There's a good chance that you're thinking to yourself, home prices are way too high. And you're absolutely right. Home prices across the board in the entire US are just way too high. And they have priced out so many people from the market that actually want to buy a home. And also, where there's not that many people who want to buy, that affects the seller market as well, because not a lot of people want to sell their homes, right? And we stall it. In every single market from 2020 until now, we have seen that the prices have gone up so high. And that is a detriment, especially to first-time homebuyers. And first-time homebuyers make up such a large portion of the real estate market. So we have seen now values skyrocket. So what does that mean? Of course, that is good for sellers, right? If you are thinking about selling your home, you're probably rejoicing because you're like, oh, I bought my house in 2017 for 200 grand, and now it's worth 450. Or I bought it in 1999 for 100 grand, and now it's worth 700,000, right? There's a lot of cases like that. For salaries, you might be thinking to yourself, this is great because I can sell my home at a premium. But you know what that means, right? When you sell your home at a premium, that means if you have to buy a home, then you're buying at a premium. And that's the trade-off. A lot of people are stuck. They're stuck. And the reason why they're stuck is because of interest rates. They're stuck. They have these golden handcuffs. It's amazing that I have a 2.625 interest rate on my house. That's amazing. I love that because it keeps my payment way down. If I wanted to buy my house again, and I bought at the end of 2018, if I wanted to buy in the end of 24 or the beginning of 2025, I'm paying 600,000. I bought it for 385. And that means I'm paying a premium on this house, and I'm also paying a much higher interest rate. A much higher, like 6.8 or maybe even 6.5, right? That's where the interest rates are going to go. That's where they're going. Right now, we're at the high sixes. We'll go to the mid sixes and hopefully down to the low sixes throughout the next year, throughout 2025. That's the goal. But a lot of homeowners are handcuffed. They're literally handcuffed, and they don't know what to do. And it's really challenging because a lot of people, they bought during the pandemic, and they went through a mess to do it. A lot of people had to waive interest rates or a lot of people had to waive inspections. I wish you could waive interest rates, but that doesn't work like that. And all these issues are coming up now too. And that's another piece of the whole story that not a lot of people talk about. And I can touch on that in a little bit. But with interest rates, you have high home values, which is great for sellers, not so great for buyers. And then you have high interest rates, which is definitely not great for buyers. And it's not great for sellers because that's keeping a lot of buyers on the sideline, right? And then you have the third piece to it, which is housing inventory. We have been in a housing inventory crisis for a couple of years now. A crisis, right? Meaning that existing home sales and existing properties, not new construction, and we are in a new construction inventory crisis as well, but existing home sales has plummeted, right? We are back in the mid-1990s level. And just so you know, if you go back to the mid-1990s, look at the population rate. It's significantly lower than it is now, right? So that means that we have so many more people just on earth in general, in the U.S. in general, and a lot of these people want to buy homes, right? Because the millennials, myself included, make up one of the largest buying pools in real estate. And we want homes. We want homes. We want to feel that American dream, right? As it isn't even the American dream anymore. I don't know. A lot of people are saying no. Buying a home is not the American dream. So what does that mean, right? Now we have these three things that we're looking at. We have these three things that we're focusing on. Really high prices, high interest rates, and low inventory. And that makes the market suck. It makes it really difficult to do anything. You have to have so much going in your favor to buy and sell right now, you know? And not a lot of people fit that mold. So when I take a step back and I can look at it from a buyer standpoint, I understand what you're going through, right? Because housing affordability is a crisis as well. So it's not just the home prices. It's not just interest rates. It's also the cost to operate the house, right? So once you have the house, you know, maybe you're fortunate enough to buy one. And now you have to operate the house, right? You have to pay for electricity. You have to pay for repairs, pay for maintenance, keep it up to date, like all of those things. It's really unaffordable because everything is so expensive right now. And that just adds to all of the frustration. You know, your groceries are really high. All of your expenses are really high outside of that. Maybe you bought a new car in the past couple of years and you have a crazy high interest rate, you know? So all of these things are contributing to this plight that buyers are going through as well as sellers. But I really truly feel for buyers. I spoke with someone recently and he was telling me, he's like, yeah, I love my house. I love where I live. I love the fact that I bought in 2018 because I was able to get it for a good price. And I see that the value has gone up so much and that's great. But I want a little bit more land. I want a little bit more space. I don't want to feel, you know, so close to everyone. But why is he going to sell at a 3% interest rate and then buy at a 6.5% if he doesn't have to, right? So there's a lot of people who want to do something, but they're not doing it because they don't have to. So it changes when you have to do it, right? If you're relocating and you're going to a new state and you're thinking to yourself, I have to sell my home now. That's completely reasonable, right? So if you have to do something, that's where you fall into the category of, okay, I have to do this now. I have to get my head on straight. I got to get my house ready to sell. But there's so many people that want to for whatever reason. You know, there's always different reasons. I'm not going to get into all the reasons, but there's always different reasons to want to either buy or to sell a home. But when you're talking about homebuyers, especially first-time homebuyers, it's so expensive to buy a home. I completely get that. And then of course, we have the seller perspective, which we already touched on. You have the golden handcuffs. You have the fact that, yeah, you can sell high, but you're going to have to buy high as well. But also, and this is not something that a lot of people have been thinking about. And I do want to touch on it because I already mentioned it. And it's the fact that there has been a large portion of people who are homeowners now, who bought during the pandemic, 21, 22, 23-ish, and even at the beginning of the year, and they had to waive inspections just to get the house, right? And you know what happens when you waive inspections? You're opening yourself up to so much pain, future pain, that maybe you thought about when you were making the offer on the house and you got the house, but maybe you didn't, right? And here, because you didn't do inspections, now you're facing the backlash of that because now there's issues coming up that you didn't know about because you didn't do the home inspection. And now you're required to take care of it because it's your house, right? It's your house. These things are coming up and you had the ability to do the inspection, but the market was just a market. And unfortunately, you had to waive that inspection. So now you're coming out of pocket. Fixing anything. You know, maybe you're replacing your HVAC system. Maybe you're redoing your roof, replacing your windows, things like that. You know, maybe you're having plumbing issues that you didn't know were an issue. And maybe the seller or someone to you had no idea that was an issue because it didn't affect their everyday life, right? So there's so many things, so many negatives to not having home inspections, right? And that's where we're at. Who are homeowners, right? It's not just the fact that they can't sell their house. They can sell their house, but now they're stuck with repairing it. So really, what does this mean in the grand scheme of things, right? Because we are looking forward into 2025. That's the goal, right? Everyone's looking forward in the 2025, especially if you're going to be in the housing market. And this doesn't necessarily apply for people who have no desire to buy or sell. But moving forward, looking forward into the future, what is that going to hold? Is it going to get any better, right? That's the question that people want answers to. I personally do not have a crystal ball. So I can't say with absolute certainty what is going to happen. But my prediction is that we're going to see more of the same, just a little bit better. More of the same. So more of the same with housing inventory issues, more of the same with rising prices, and more of the same with interest rates, but a little bit better. And a little bit better in terms of, I believe that interest rates will go down, which will unlock a lot of buyers and then sellers who are buyers as well. I do believe that we're going to get more inventory because of that. But the other piece of it is housing prices, right? They're going to continue to go up in my opinion, in my professional opinion, because of these factors, right? Because when you have all of this pent up demand, you have all of these buyers who are interested in getting in to either a starter home or the forever home. And then you have interest rates going down, which is causing more people to get back into the market. And although we might get, or we will get, in my opinion, we will get more housing inventory. It's just going to create that perfect storm for prices to keep rising, barring any kind of major economic downturn that could potentially happen, right? And that could potentially happen from mass deportations and from tariffs, right? Those are the two big things that I'm looking at moving forward in 2025. If those things happen, the housing market could be affected very dramatically, right? And we don't know for sure if that's going to happen. And if it does happen, we don't know how quickly it's going to happen. But I believe moving forward into 2025, it's going to be more of the same, just a little bit better. I don't believe we're going to see a huge influx in listings, because that would mean that there's something really wrong going on. If there's this huge influx, if everyone starts to want to sell their properties, and if the number of inventory goes up so high, and it's more than the buyer demand, then we're going to be in that neutral market or buyer's market, which there are a lot of pockets in the US that are experiencing that. They are seeing in places like Florida and like Texas, Alabama, right? In Georgia, they have seen a huge influx in inventory, people wanting to get out of those areas and sell their homes. So they're in neutral markets, they're in buyer markets. And I have experienced that in the other market that I personally work in, which is the Poconos. It is definitely a buyer's market in the Pocono Mountains, because there has been a huge influx of Airbnb properties that were purchased over the past four years. And now a lot of people are getting out because of regulatory changes, because the numbers just aren't making sense, because they realize that it's a really difficult business to own and operate. So a lot of people are selling their properties now, and there's a ton of inventory. It's not like extreme, right? There's not like nine or 10 months of inventory, although in some pockets of the Poconos there are. But overall, it is definitely a buyer's market up there. But for the vast majority of the US, it is a very, very strong seller's market still. And those factors that I already talked about, so home prices, interest rates, and inventory, they are going to go up, in my opinion, and down, hopefully with interest rates. By the end of 2025, hopefully it'll be in the low 6% or potentially high 5%. Here is the hard truth. There is no quick fix for this. There is absolutely no magic button to press that is going to fix what is going on right now. It's going to be a slow increase and a slow decline. Increase in inventory, increase in housing prices, slow decline in interest rates. I wish there was a magic button. I wish there was something that we could do that can help fit everyone's needs, but that is not the case. So moving forward, going into 2025, you just have to plan properly. Whatever you're deciding to do, you have to have a solid plan in place because if you're not planning to execute on a high level as best as you possibly can in 2025, you're going to regret it. If you're just thinking, eh, I'm just going to throw my house on the market and see what happens. Hopefully I can find someone to buy it. Hopefully I'll be able to find a home to move into. No, you have to have a plan in place. You have to plan properly because if you don't, again, you're just going to set yourself up for failure. That is the most important thing that I can tell you moving forward in 2025. Have a plan, hire a great agent, stick to the plan as best as you possibly can. For buyers, don't rush. Make sure you pre-approve. Make sure you have all your financials in place. Make sure you understand what you can comfortably afford as a mortgage payment with PITI included. So the principal, the interest, the taxes, and the insurance, right? If you are at $2,500 a month or $3,000 a month, don't look at homes that are going to put you at $3,500 a month or $3,700 a month. You have to be crystal clear with your financial picture. You have to truly understand. You have to be cert, right? If it's $3,000 a month, stick to homes where you're going to be at $3,000 a month. Make sure you're looking at prices. Make sure you're looking at taxes and make sure you get a good idea of what your insurance is going to cost. For sellers, when you decide to sell, make sure that you follow a structured plan. Look, I have a video, the 10-step process I already created. Everything you possibly need to do to be successful with selling your house is literally in that video, okay? Everything. So do yourself a favor, go back, watch that video, and you will be set up for success 100% guaranteed. The housing market is a challenge. No excuses, right? I understand that. The market is a very big challenge, but it's always cyclical. What goes up must come down, right? It's just a matter of how much it will come down and how fast it will continue to go up. And you need to be prepared. I've already said this. I cannot keep repeating the same thing, but I will just be prepared. If you want to find a great agent anywhere in the US or if you're looking in the greater Philadelphia area, the Philly suburbs, or the Pocono Mountains, you want to work with me and my team, just click that link below. But again, if you're looking for an agent anywhere in the US or even Canada, I have a very large network now. Click that link below. Schedule an appointment with me. Look forward to speaking with you soon. Have an awesome day.