Home prices will go down this summer as sellers can't postpone listing any longer
House prices are expected to drop this summer as homeowners who have been waiting out high mortgage rates realize they can no longer delay moving, according to Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman.
The head of the online real estate brokerage highlighted indications that the housing market is beginning to become more affordable.
Homes in major metro areas in states like Florida and Texas are already seeing "major price cuts," Kelman noted. Additionally, over 6% of US home sellers issued a price cut in May, the highest proportion recorded in over a year, according to a recent Redfin report.
The price decline is attributed to homeowners giving up on waiting out high mortgage rates. As more owners decide to list their homes after a year or more of waiting, the supply of available inventory is increasing and prices are starting to adjust, Kelman explained.
"A lot of our customers are folks who got a divorce last year, and the husband and the wife are driving each other crazy, or they own a townhouse, and they've had a third child, and they're just bursting at the seams," he said in a recent interview on "The David Lin Report."
"At some point, even though people don't want to sell, they have to sell," he added.
According to Redfin data, the supply of available homes rose to 1.6 million in April, up 13.7% from the same time last year. Meanwhile, the number of newly listed homes for sale increased to 621,000, up 17.4% from last year.
"We really saw, in the first three or four months of the year, new listings accelerate. Now there's just a large number of active listings," Kelman said. "When homes sit on the market, you start to see prices soften."
Redfin predicts that US home prices will fall 1% by the end of the year. However, this price decline could take some time, Kelman added.
"Homeowners are emotionally committed to their property. They have in mind a number, and they're loathed to give it up. So that makes home prices stickier," he later said. "But still, I think it's going to be a pretty soft summer for home prices."