Newsletter May Lucas Schelkens Greetings from Paris!

Hello Everyone,?

Greetings from Paris! Unlike most visitors who want to see sites like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, I have spent an inordinate amount of time looking at real estate. While overall home prices here have dropped 1.5%, if you have seen the Netflix Series, The Parisian Agency about the real life Kretz family's high-end real estate agency in Paris, you know that like the Coachella Valley, top tier properties in the city of lights seem immune to market fluctuations. Nonetheless, many French sellers are holding off listing their property until overall optimism and conditions improve.?

Back at home, forged by higher interest rates (which have affected demand and the expectations of both sellers and buyers) the market continues to adjust to a traditionally balanced market. Although the California Desert Association of Realtors report that the average days on market have increased to 49, due to interest rates dropping about ?% since February, we can expect to see home prices increase by 8.2% over last year. That, along with the fact that average home prices have increased 47.5% in the past 30 months, most Coachella Valley homeowners still have about $200,000 in equity in homes purchased prior to April 2020.?

Buyers should realize that despite changes in the market, now is a great time to buy. With less competition in the marketplace, buyers have more power than they did during the pandemic buying frenzy. That means they can negotiate 'buy downs' to lower interest rates, and not have to shorten escrow periods or waive contingencies including home inspections.?

Considering all of the above, buyers shouldn't hesitate to get into the market.?

?As they say in Paris,?

"Tout suite!"