What Barbara Corcoran Says About Mortgage Rates and Home Prices

'Shark Tank' star Barbara Corcoran recently appeared on Good Morning America to chime in on mortgage rages and prices.  Here's what she had to say:

Corcoran explains,

"The housing market is surprisingly strong, everybody's surprised by it. Houses are not staying on the market, they all sell, one third of them sell for over ask price, and there are just not enough houses to go around. So, as a result of that, the housing market is as strong as ever and it's so frustrating for buyers."

For those asking about waiting until the interest rates come down, Corcoran predicts,

"Every buyer on the sideline is going to jump into the market...and houses are going to go up in price all over again."

Does the Alexandria VA real estate market back up Corcoan's assessment?  Let's take a look.  

Regarding housing not staying on the market long, here's how long it's taking homes to sell:

 

When you look at the interactive chart, you'll see that it's like slicing through a piece of bread.  Clearly December 2022 and January of this year, buyers had time to look at home and think about what they were buying, but notice the dive that started in February.  Homes went from a median of 34 days on the market, to 12.  And February was the last month (the second month, first quarter) where we had double-digit days on the market.

Are homes in Alexandria VA selling for over asking price:

Can you spot the window of opportunity that buyers had?  Yep, right around the end of the year 2022.  In November 2022, Alexandria homes sold at 98.4% of original list price, in December 97.8%, and at the very start of 2023 for 97.5%  After January, sellers were getting exactly what they were asking, or more.

And finally, what about the statement, "there's just not enough houses to go around.";

For this, I wanted to go back 10 years so that you can really grasp and follow the decline in inventory.  Remember, in order to have a bubble, it must be preceded by a flood of listings.  When you look at the number of active listings in Alexandria VA, you'll see that we're not even close to the number of active listings that we saw in 2013-2018.  So, we would need double the number of houses for sale, and we still wouldn't be close to the levels of inventory that we saw in 2008 when the crash happened.

What are your thoughts on Barbara Corcoran's comments and the Alexandria VA real estate market?  Comment below.