Year End Real Estate Review/Thoughts & Predictions for 2024 -By Mike Kenyon

First off I would like to wish you a Happy Holiday season. I wanted to thank you for your continued real estate support and referrals throughout the year. You truly are the lifeblood of my business and I am very grateful to have you as an advocate.

Most monthly updates I provide contain articles that pertain to current real estate news but for this month's letter I chose to share some brief thoughts of where we are going in the real estate market next year and provide you with some conversation points when out and about the next couple weeks. Feel free to forward this to anyone you know that would find this interesting or educational. This is the time of year for gatherings so if you are out and about and hear someone looking to buy or sell a house or condo as part of their 2024 resolutions I would appreciate if you passed my information along!

2023 was a unique and very challenging year in real estate. Historically high interest rates, low inventory and economic uncertainty dominated all the headlines for good reason. While rates went up so did the price of single family homes in the Bay Area contrary to logic thus frustrating most buyers to new heights that I have not seen in my 15+ years of industry experience. Many sellers were reluctant to move as they were locked in at rates around 3%. This created a very tight real estate market where we saw the fewest number of transactions in years making many home buyers and sellers to sit on the sidelines and pause their moves as well as forcing many agents to leave the industry.

While 2023 was very tight my early outlook of 2024 is a bit brighter. The Feds are going to cut rates in 2024 which should bring more overall market activity. I have already been getting quite a few calls from sellers looking to potentially make a move in 2024 which is a sign there is more inventory to come. While the prediction of lower rates would logically mean prices should go up that may not be completely the case. If more sellers decide to list their homes there will be more inventory and prices may actually go down a bit for single family homes. What kept prices up was the lack of inventory this year but if we get more inventory next year look for prices to potentially soften a bit at least for single family homes.

Condos and townhomes have taken a significant hit in Q3 and Q4 this year and there are a lot of deals to be had if you are shopping for a condo or townhome. My prediction is these deals will get snatched up in the next couple of months and we will see an increase in the price of condos/townhomes in certain areas in 2024. If you are looking for a condo/townhome now is probably as good of a time as any to jump in that market.

The real estate news dominating the headlines the last couple months has revolved around commissions and how commissions could be coming down. Good for consumers but bad for agents! I am starting to see this in my business and would be happy to have an open and honest conversation with anyone looking to sell in 2024 how you may be able to sell with me for a little lower commission than in previous years. Give me a call and we can chat about this.

Thank you again for all of your support throughout the year and I hope you have a great Holiday Season! I will be in town throughout the Holidays so please feel free to reach out at any point if you want to get a jump on your 2024 real estate plans.

Mike Kenyon

408-529-0248