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Dave Meyer
There are big shifts happening in the housing market. These are shifts towards a type of market we really haven't seen in years. And although changes can catch some people off guard for knowledgeable and informed investors, it actually creates opportunity. So today I'm sharing with you my May Housing Market Update to catch you all up on everything investors need to know to build and manage their portfolio successfully. Hey, everyone, it's Dave. Welcome to our monthly update on the housing market. We've been doing these now for a couple of months as the economy and the housing market continue to be very volatile. And this month is no exception. We've got a lot going on and we've got a lot to get into today. We're going to spend most of our time in this episode going deep into what I believe is the biggest theme in the market right now, which is just this general market softness that we're observing and you're probably feeling. But it's important to think about what market softness even means. Yes, prices are weaker almost across the board. In some markets that means declines, but in other markets it just means slower growth. And this type of shift, this move towards a softer market, from a seller's market to a more balanced market, can create some fear, especially in the mainstream media, but it can also create opportunity if you understand what's going on and how to adjust your strategies. So we're going to go deep into this idea today, but we'll also hit on a couple other topics, like what's going on with mortgage rates. And I'll share with you some important new rent trends that investors should definitely have on their mind. Here's our May 2025 housing market update. So our first story today is about the market softness, and I'm calling it that because it's not like we're seeing across the board declines in pricing, but we are seeing generally just lower price appreciation. We're seeing the shift of power go from a strong seller's market like we've been in for the last couple of years to one that I think we could call more balanced. Some markets are different than that. We'll get into some of the regional trends in just a little bit. Some are in a buyer's market, but I think for the majority of the country, we're moving from this seller's market to a balanced market, which just means prices are going to be a little bit softer. There's going to be a little bit more wiggle room in negotiations, which is a good thing. So how does this show up when when I talk about the fact that there's more market softness right now, how do I know that that's happening? And what does it actually mean for you as investors? So there's three things that I'm sort of tracking. One is that there's this big difference between what sellers want for their homes and what buyers are willing to pay. We're seeing increasing inventory. There's just more properties for sale on the market, and we're going to see softer prices. Those are like sort of the three things that tell me that we're in a softer market. And also the three things that you as an investor need to keep in mind when adjusting and formulating your strategy to deal with this changing market. So let's talk about each of those three things. The first, like I said, was this difference between what sellers want for their property and what buyers want to. And of course, there's always a little bit of a divide here. Sellers always want more than buyers are willing to pay. But that gap is growing right now. So right now, the median asking price according to redfin, is like 470,000, which is 9% higher than the 431,000 for the median sale price. That is the largest gap that we have seen since 2020. And that in itself doesn't mean that prices are falling. It just means that there's two different mindsets in the housing market right now. Sellers still think, by and large, on a national basis, that we're in this pandemic era where they could just ask for anything and buyers are going to pay it. And buyers are like, no, I don't think so. We are not willing to go up to a median home price of 470,000 in the United States. We're more comfortable at 431. And this just shows that sellers have been slow to adjust, which is why list and sale prices are diverging. And this is going to have implications in the housing market. First and foremost, we are going to see more price cuts. Right? This has to happen. Something has to give. If sellers and buyers are so far apart, someone has to make an adjustment. And my gut feeling here is that it's going to be sellers, right? Buyers have been paying the prices that sellers have been asking for, like, five years now. And my feeling is that if they haven't splurged on that home after five years, after three years of high interest rates, it's not going to be right now when they're like, oh, yeah, I'm willing to pay up for a house. I think the reason that we are seeing this divergence is that buyers are pulling back a little bit. And that to me means that sellers are going to have to ask for less. We are already seeing more price drops. Just to share some data with you, we nationally are at almost 20% price drops. We've seen that at some periods in the last couple of years, in 2020 and then in 2022. But normally, like pre pandemic level, we were at like 14%. And so to see that we're at 20% does have some implications. Now, it's important to remember price drops are not a measure of whether prices have actually gone down. Right. This doesn't measure the median home price. It' essentially what a price drop measures is how well a property priced. And the answer right now is not good. They're not doing a good job. The big trend is that sellers are not pricing their properties well. And again, this doesn't mean that prices are falling, but it creates the perception of a change in the market. And I think that gives buyers more power relative to sellers because when buyers start seeing price drops in their market, they. They're a little bit more patient, they're a little firmer on their negotiations. Right. That's what I would do if I was in a market where there are more price drops. And even though that doesn't necessarily mean the median home price will fall, I think it is a lead indicator that power dynamics are definitely shifting and that's important. So that's the first thing again, like I said, the reason I see the softness is this split between what buyers are willing to pay and what sellers are offering for. The second way that we see this show up is in terms of inventory. Right now we see active listings, which is just a measurement of how many properties are for sale at any given point. Those are up 14% year over year, and that's a pretty big increase. It's important to remember, as I always say here, is that that's still well below pandemic levels. Right. We are still not where we were in 2019 or 2018 or 2017. So. So we're not like in any emergency state, but things are moving back towards where we would expect them to be. And I'm actually not super convinced that we need to get back to 2019 levels in order for the housing market to shift to a buyer's market. I think we might permanently be in a somewhat lower inventory era, but I think it does need to come up from here. Like, if we're going to see prices actually decline on a national level, we do need to see this inventory go up even beyond where it is right now. And there's no knowing whether or not that's going to happen. But as of right now, this is why I'm seeing some softness. Is inventory, active listings, days on market. These are measures between supply and demand. And it's just becoming more balanced. You see that in the active inventory. You see that in days on market or up three and a half days since last year. And this just tells us that we are moving from this really strong seller's market to a softer market that is more neutral. Last thing we need to talk about after talking about that spread and inventory is of course, pricing. This is probably what everyone is here for and everyone wants to know about. The market is softening. But at least according to Redfin and all the other measures I've looked at, they're all going to be a little bit different, but the trend is the same, that appreciation is slowing down. But Redfin, for example, still has us up the median home price in the United States at 2% year over year. So that's good, right, because prices are growing nominally. But there is some nuance to this, right? So there's a couple of things here. One, notice that I just said nominally, which means not inflation adjusted. When you actually compare the price of homes to the inflation rate, we've sort of crossed an important threshold. There is an important milestone that prices are now going up less than the rate of inflation. And to me, I know this might sound trivial, but to me, this is an important distinction. And I did an episode recently, there was an audio bonus, if you haven't checked it out recently, on the health of the housing market and what makes a good, healthy housing market. And one of the criteria that I came up with is that prices must be growing faster than inflation because I think that's just important as an investor. At a bare minimum, I want my dollars to be preserved in terms of spending power. And we're going backward just a little bit, right? Remember, inflation's like two and a half, 2.3%. Right now Redfin says prices are going up 2%. So we're about even in terms of what is called real pricing, which is inflation adjusted pricing. So that's one of the nuances to pricing that I think we need to cover. The other nuance that we need to talk about is, of course, regional differences, because each market, each state, each city is going to be performing differently right now and going forward. And we should talk about those nuances. But first, we do need to take a quick break. We'll be right back. This week's bigger news is brought to you by the Fundrise Flagship Fund. Invest in private market real estate with the Fundrise Flagship fund. Check out fundrise.com pockets to learn more. What if I told you you could forget everything you know about investment property loans? Because Host Financial is rewriting the rulebook, tossing out those pesky DTI restrictions, they focus on your property's income potential. No tax returns or personal income statements needed. Simple, efficient and tailored for investors like you. 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Dave Meyer
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Dave Meyer
Welcome back to the BiggerPockets podcast. We're giving you our May housing market update. So far we've talked a little bit about market softness and we're going to talk about regional differences. But first I should just mention what I personally think is going to happen here on a national basis. And my guess is that I think the market is going to continue to cool. We have seen pretty solid mortgage demand, which is great. They're actually up year over year, but my gut tells me that it's probably going to stay somewhat soft. I don't think it's going to come storming back. I don't think it's going to fall off a ton. But there are a lot of headwinds. We have tariffs uncertainty, we have stock market volatility, we have student loan collections. And even if the economy doesn't go into a recession, even if it's fine in three months, there's a lot of uncertainty and people generally don't make huge economic decisions during periods of uncertainty. And so my guess is that we're going to see mortgage demand a little bit subdued over the last next couple of months. Meanwhile, we're going to see inventory continue to increase, albeit slowly. I don't think we're going to have any for selling. I don't think we're going to have a crash. But I think some combination of economic distress right now and just normal life, people wanting to sell their properties, that's going to further move us from the seller's market more into neutral and maybe to a modest buyer's market in the next couple of months. I think in the next few months we're moving towards those flat nominal prices that I've been talking about for most of this year. I've been saying that I think prices were going to go pretty much flat this year. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm planning my personal portfolio this way. When I am underwriting deals, I am not assuming any appreciation for the next year or two. I do think, of course, the housing market always sort of recovers and gets back to that 2, 3, 4% appreciation rate. And I do expect that long term. But I think for the next few years the wise thing to do as an investor is not assume that's going to happen. And if you're wrong and you get that appreciation, that's great. For example, personally, I am thinking strongly and probably I'm going to list a property that I own for sale in the next week or two. I'm doing some research on whether it's the right decision right now, but I'm just looking at this property. It's actually done. Okay. I just don't think there's a lot of juice left in it, and there's not going to be a ton of appreciation in this particular market over the next couple of years. Meanwhile, I think there's going to be good deals because the market's softening and there's going to be opportunity. And so I think I'm going to sell this deal and raise some cash and wait for a better opportunity. Not saying everyone should do that, but that's sort of how I'm thinking about it. Maybe calling a property that's doing okay, but not doing great in pursuit of what I think are going to be some juicier kinds of deals coming in the next year or two as the market softens. Okay, so with that said, let's talk about some of the regional differences in the metros right now. When looking at major metros. This isn't every market in the country. Just looking at the top 50 major metros here, seven of them now have declining prices, and that's a lot. I mean, it's not crazy during normal times, but compared to where we've been over the last couple of years, it's a lot. Number one biggest declines right now is Jacksonville, Florida, almost 4% declines. San Francisco's down two and a half. We have Austin and Dallas at 1.6 and 1.4. Oakland, West Palm Beach, Tampa. So all of the seven are in Florida, California and Texas for our top 50 major markets. Personally, I think this is going to rise because if you look at a lot of big markets, they're between 0 and 1%, 0 and 1 and a half percent. And I think some will turn negative a little bit. Personally, I don't really see a big difference between, you know, West Palm beach is down negative 0.3%. Difference between that and being up 0.3% doesn't matter to me. All of that is relatively flat. When you look at Jacksonville. Yeah, minus 4%, that, that matters. San Francisco, minus 2 and a half percent, that matters. Still in, you know, correction territory. This is not crash territory, but I think we'll get a lot more markets that are in this flat territory. But it is worth noting that sort of the upside to the markets that are doing well is way bigger than the downside to the markets that are not doing well. Milwaukee's home prices are up 12% year over year. It's crazy that this is still happening. Newark, New Jersey, 11%. Cleveland, nine and a half. Chicago, nearly 8%. Baltimore, 7%. So these are big regional changes. And it does support my hypothesis that I've been saying for two years that affordable markets are going to do well. And we are seeing this in cities like Milwaukee, Cleveland, Chicago, Baltimore. These are affordable places where even though we are seeing some economic uncertainty, people can still afford to buy in these markets even with the interest rates the way that they are. And that's keeping demand relatively high. So that's that there are big regional changes. I think across most markets, we're going to see overall softness continue. I think even the markets that are doing well, we'll do well, but they'll do a little bit less well. And I am planning my portfolio around a softer price appreciation for at least the next year. I might be wrong about that, that might be overly conservative, but given the level of volatility in the market, I think conservative is the way to go. That's personally at least what I'm doing. And I wouldn't blame you for doing the same. All right, let's move on from prices to mortgage rates. We're going to only go over this quickly because I do want to get to the rent trends and I did recently do a whole episode about what I think the range for mortgage rates is going to be going forward. But let's just do a brief recap because this is super important to investors. Big picture. Not happy to say this, but my theory of mortgage rates for 2025 is proving correct and that rates are just staying higher than I think a lot of people were calling for. As of today, the median rate on a 30 year fixed is 6.9%. That is lower than January, which is great. It is lower than it was a year ago. Also good. But it's not really enough to get the market moving. We're not seeing a lot more transaction volume and as I said, the market is softening. And I'll give you just the tldr. If you want more detail, go check out this episode I put out on my mortgage rate range, I think two weeks ago. But basically mortgage rates tied to bond investors, bond yields and bond investors. They are fickle beings. They do not like uncertainty. And until the uncertainty around the economy and trade slows down, we're in for higher interest rates. The Fed has so far declined to lower rates. We just found out, I'm recording this in mid May. We just found out a couple of days ago that they held rates today. The odds are on the Fed holding rates in June again. I think there's a slightly. There's a slight chance they cut rates, but personally, if I had to bet on it, I'd say they're holding rates in June again. And even if they do cut rates, that might not do anything for mortgage rates. Remember what happened back in September? They started cutting rates and mortgage rates went up. So remember that the Fed does not control mortgage rates. That is all about bond investors. And until there is less uncertainty in the economy, I would not be banking on bond yields falling. And I know this is not the news anyone wants to hear, but again, same thing with the price softness. It's just we need to be prepared. Like, you can invest, you can adapt. You just have to be informed. You have to know what's going on. And so it's wise to not bury your head in the sand and just admit prices are probably going to soften. Mortgage rates are probably going to stay high, at least for the next few months, and just adjust your portfolio accordingly. Make your bids on the deals that you want to do accordingly based on these realities. How long is this going to happen? I don't know, but I think at least three months. It could be longer. I say at least three months because we need to see trade deals. In addition to trade deals, we need to see inflation data. We need to see what the Fed is going to do. And without these things, it's just, it's not going to change that much unless there's some huge black swan event. But, you know, we can never predict those. So I think what we have to look at is the high probability thing is, is that mortgage rates are staying the same. There is some good news, though, because in some markets, we're actually seeing housing affordability get mildly better. And I know that's crazy, but in markets where prices are dropping, it means homes are getting more affordable. So, for example, in Jacksonville, I said that that market is declining the most. The average payment that someone has to pay on their mortgage per month has gone down, not because mortgage rates have fallen, but because prices have fallen. And so the median monthly mortgage payment in Jacksonville is, is now down 4.2% year over year because mortgage rates are down. They're down a little bit year over year. But the combination of those two things has brought down mortgage payments and made it more affordable. Same things going on in San Francisco and Oakland and West Palm Beach. And it just sort of depends where you are in your portfolio. You know, if you're holding A lot of assets not trying to buy. You probably don't want to see these price declines. But if you're in growth mode, this might be good news to you because housing is getting more affordable in these markets. And although, you know, we might see some of this market softness extend for months or maybe a year, we don't know that increased affordability does create sort of opportunities. Personally, I get more interested in buying real estate in periods like this because I trust the housing market will rebound over the 5, 10, 15 year time horizon. I'm going to hold assets. And this increased affordability just makes it easier to afford deals, first of all, and it gives you a lower basis so that if prices do start to accelerate again, that you're starting at that lower basis and get to enjoy those rewards. So that's all good. The other good thing I just want to mention about mortgages is that demand for mortgages is still up year over year. Even with the softness that I've been talking about. Mortgage rates have come down and people are still buying homes. The reason it's softening is because there's more inventory, there's more listings going up, not because there's less demand. All right, so we've talked about the housing market softness and we've talked about mortgage rates, which is one of the major reasons for the softness. But I want to turn our attention to rents, which we haven't talked about in a couple of months because there's some stuff coming in that you should know about. But we do have to take one more quick break. We'll be right back. Tired of traditional lenders holding you back? Host Financial is here to change the game. They've ditched the DTI restrictions and they zero in on what really matters. Your property's income potential. So no more chasing papers for tax returns or personal income statements. Think about it. 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Dave Meyer
Welcome back to the BiggerPockets podcast here, talking about our May housing market update. And we're going to turn our attention to rent data and what's going on with rent pricing. And I want to just start by saying rent data is nuts. As a data analyst, I just find it so frustrating because I look at data all day and, yeah, there's different data on housing prices, but it's mostly directionally the same. But rent prices, the way that people collect it and talk about it, is just so different. Like, just, for example, apartment list, great source of data. Flat Realtor, another good source of data. They say that rents are down 3%. Zillow, another good source of reliable rent data, up 3%. So it's just like you have all of these different signals, and don't get me started about the way the Fed and the census collects data. That's another crazy thing. So it's. It's kind of hard to get a precise answer. But when you average them all out and sort of like zoom out and look at the trends, what I would call is that rents are flat right now. And so I just wanted to share that first and foremost at the beginning of this conversation, because depending on what news source you look at, you might be hearing that rents are up. Rents are down. But I think when you look at the aggregate sources of data, I believe that they're sort of flat. So let's just go with apartment list and use some of their data, because I believe that rents are, by and large, maybe a point off here or there, but they're mostly flat. The other thing that they're showing that I wanted to share with investors, I think is important, is that despite being flat, vacancies are starting to go up. Vacancy has hit the highest point in at least eight years. Their data, it's good, but it doesn't go back that far. It's only to 2019. So we can't really see, using apartment list data, how vacancy compares to, let's say, the months leading up to the Great Recession or anything like that. But we are seeing, you know, vacancies go up right now as of April 2025, they are showing us a vacancy rate of 7% compared to, let's say, July 2020, during the height of the pandemic, you know, it was about 6.8%, so very similar. But after the pandemic, you know, due to a lot of stimulus and a lot of the rules, we saw a vacancy rate go down to 3.8%. So in a lot of ways this is getting back to normal. Like in 2019, they had us at 6%, but we're at 7%. I think this is a reflection of a couple of things. First and foremost, we need to remember that there's a huge supply glut in the United States for apartments right now that has been going on for a while. We've talked about it on the show quite a few times. But it's still happening. And it's still going to take, I think another three, six, maybe nine months to work itself out. It could be longer if we go into a recession. If economic conditions stay good, we can expect that new apartments will get absorbed because people will be feeling good, they'll be forming new households, they'll be willing to pay a little bit up for that brand new apartment. But if economic sentiment stays as low as it is right now, and remember, we're seeing consumer sentiment at one of the lowest points it's been in quite a long time. And if that continues, I think this supply issue in housing is going to extend a little bit because people just aren't going to pay up for that new apartment. And it probably means that vacancies are going to stay up and rent places are going to stay relatively flat. Just think about that. If there are a lot of new apartments on the market, how do they compete to get these people who aren't feeling great economically? They lower prices or they offer more concessions and that sort of spills out throughout the whole rental market. My gut is zooming out that single family residences and small multifamily will stay pretty steady. I think those tend to have higher demands even during periods of economic uncertainty. We see housing prices continue to be really high. And so for a lot of folks, it's a better financial decision if you were going to buy a house, to rent a single family house in a lot of markets, most markets right now, that is a better financial decision. Now, a lot of people choose not to do that. I choose not to do that. You know, I think a lot of people want the stability or the pride that comes in homeownership. Those things are important. But I do think demand for single family rentals is going to stay high. But what will continue to get impacted are some of those lower end properties. So if we look at class C properties, maybe even class B properties especially, that are bigger apartment buildings, I think we're going to see weak pricing there and higher vacancies because of the supply issues, but also because we have this other combination going on where there is lower immigration, we have deportations, lowering the overall amount of households in the United States. We also have inflation eroding some spending power. We have the potential that tariffs are going to increase inflation. We don't know yet, but there is a good chance that that is going to happen. And so I just think that folks, unfortunately at the lower end of the economic spectrum are going to get hit by these things. And so apartments that are in the C or B class neighborhoods are probably going to have lower rent growth and they're going to have higher vacancy. There's also, I should mention this sort of like open question about Section eight. Section eight, if you're not aware, is this federal program that provides rental assistance to low income people. It's more than 9 million Americans and the Trump administration just recently proposed slashing it. It is still a proposal, we should note that. And it's actually not up to the White House. Congress actually has to make that decision. But it's important to know because this would impact a lot of low income people. And if they don't have this federal assistance and if states don't step in, I should mention that because Trump plan calls for states to fill in the gap that would be left by this decline in federal funding. So if this passes and if states don't fill that gap, we could see literally 9 million people lose some of the financial assistance that they need to pay for housing. And that's not to say that not all of them couldn't fill that in personally. But I think you have to assume that inevitably some of these folks might move out and combine households. Some of them unfortunately might fall behind on rent. There might be an increase in evictions, there might be an increase in homelessness that comes around because of this. So that is something in the housing market that we need to keep an eye on. Again, it is just a proposal right now I was reading about this and reading from people on both sides of the aisle think this is unlikely to happen. But if it does pass, I think there will be implications for the housing and rental market and it's something that we should all be keeping an eye on. All right, that's it. That's what I got for the May housing market update. Again, just as a summary, we are seeing prices soften. Some markets are still growing like crazy. You know, some of these markets in the Midwest, some in the Sun Belt in the boom stage from the pandemic are softening more. And my expectation is this softening is going to continue. Just reading the Tea leaves looking at what's going on in the economy, mortgage rates staying high, inventory going up. I think that's going to be the trend. And I know mainstream media people are going to call out that this is crazy and it's, you know, some disaster. But I think for people who are building their portfolio, this will spell opportunity. I personally am getting more excited to buy real estate right now. I bought a primary residence that I'm going to live in and do a renovation on, and I think I got it for legit more than 10% off that I could have bought it maybe two or three months ago. And that sale price, if I was going to sell it two months from now, might be lower. But I feel like I got a really good asset. And long term this is going to be a great investment for me. And that's just at the beginning of this softness. But I do think we'll see these opportunities present themselves over the next couple of months and maybe years. That said, I really recommend people continue to be conservative because you don't want to assume appreciation in a softer market. And as I've said, I do believe rent growth is going to be strong in the next couple of years. But I told you in the beginning of this year at the upside area, I didn't think that rent growth was going to pick up till 2026, and I still believe that. I think we have a few months to go to work through some of the economic uncertainty, to work through these supply issues, but I do think they will go up. But again, don't count on a lot of rent growth this year. Still can find deals. I actually think you're going to be able to find more deals. But just keep this all in mind. The key to being a good investor is to just change your strategy to change your tactics according to what's going on in the market, what's going on in the economy, and hopefully these types of episodes can help you make informed, smart, profitable investing decisions. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode of the BiggerPockets podcast. I'm Dave Meyer. I'll see you next time. Thank you all for listening to the Biggerpockets Real Estate Podcast. Make sure you get all our new episodes by subscribing on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Our new episodes come out Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm the host and executive producer of the show, Dave Meyer. The show is produced by Ian K. Copywriting is by Calico, content and editing is by Exodus Media. If you'd like to learn more about real estate investing or to sign up for our free newsletter, please visit www.biggerpockets.com.
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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only. All host and participant opinions are their own. Investment in any asset, real estate included, involves risk, so use your best judgment and consult with qualified advisors before investing. You should only risk capital you can afford to lose, and remember, past performance is not indicative of future results. BiggerPockets LLC disclaims all liability for direct, indirect, consequential or other damages arising from a reliance on information presented in this podcast.
Host: Dave Meyer, Head of Real Estate at BiggerPockets
Release Date: May 16, 2025
Episode Title: May 2025 Housing Market Update: Price Cuts Arrive, Market “Softening” Continues
In the May 2025 episode of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, Dave Meyer provides a comprehensive update on the current state of the housing market. Addressing significant shifts towards a softer market, Meyer discusses the implications for real estate investors and outlines strategies to navigate the evolving landscape. The episode delves into key themes such as market softness, regional trends, mortgage rates, and rent dynamics, offering valuable insights for both seasoned investors and those new to the field.
Dave Meyer introduces the concept of "market softness," highlighting a transition from a robust seller's market to a more balanced or even buyer-favorable environment. This shift is characterized by weaker price appreciation and increased negotiation flexibility.
Price Gap: The median asking price is $470,000, which is 9% higher than the median sale price of $431,000—the largest gap since 2020.
"Sellers still think, by and large, on a national basis, that we're in this pandemic era where they could just ask for anything and buyers are going to pay it." [02:30]
Increasing Inventory: Active listings have risen by 14% year-over-year, signaling more properties available for buyers.
"We're moving from this really strong seller's market to a softer market that is more neutral." [04:50]
Price Drops: Approximately 20% of listings are experiencing price reductions, indicating potential overpricing at initial listing.
"Price drops are not a measure of whether prices have actually gone down. They're indicating that properties may have been initially overpriced." [07:15]
Meyer examines the performance of different metropolitan areas, revealing significant regional disparities within the top 50 major metros.
Declining Markets:
"Seven of the top 50 major metros are now seeing declining prices." [12:45]
Growing Markets:
"Affordable markets are performing well, even amid economic uncertainty." [15:30]
Mortgage rates remain a critical factor influencing the housing market's dynamics. As of mid-May, the median rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage stands at 6.9%, slightly lower than January but still elevated compared to historical lows.
"Mortgage rates are staying higher than many predicted, largely due to ongoing economic uncertainty." [21:05]
Stable or Rising Rates: Due to factors like tariffs, stock market volatility, and student loan collections, mortgage rates are expected to remain high or even increase.
"Until there is less uncertainty in the economy, we're in for higher interest rates." [22:00]
Demand Dynamics: Despite high rates, mortgage demand remains up year-over-year. Softening is attributed more to increased inventory than reduced buyer demand.
Affordability Improvements in Some Markets: In areas experiencing price declines, monthly mortgage payments have decreased, enhancing affordability.
"Increased affordability in certain markets presents new opportunities for investors." [25:10]
Rent data presents a complex picture with varying reports from different sources. Meyer synthesizes these conflicting indicators to provide a clearer overview.
Overall Rent Stability: When averaging data from multiple sources like Apartment List, Zillow, and Realtor.com, rents are largely flat.
"When you average out all data sources, rents are mostly flat right now." [26:30]
Increasing Vacancy Rates: The vacancy rate has risen to 7% in April 2025, up from 6.8% in July 2020.
"Higher vacancy rates indicate a surplus of rental units, contributing to flat or declining rents." [28:15]
"Consumer sentiment is at one of the lowest points it's been in quite a long time." [30:50]
"If Section 8 cuts pass, we could see millions lose rental assistance, impacting the housing market significantly." [32:45]
"Demand for single-family rentals is going to stay high." [34:20]
Dave Meyer wraps up the episode by reiterating the key themes of market softness, regional disparities, elevated mortgage rates, and complex rent dynamics. He emphasizes the importance for investors to adopt a conservative approach, adjusting strategies to align with the current market conditions while remaining vigilant for emerging opportunities.
"The key to being a good investor is to just change your strategy to change your tactics according to what's going on in the market, what's going on in the economy, and hopefully these types of episodes can help you make informed, smart, profitable investing decisions." [35:00]
Portfolio Adjustments: Meyer plans to liquidate certain assets to take advantage of current price softness, anticipating better opportunities in the future.
"I'm planning my portfolio around a softer price appreciation for at least the next year." [34:10]
Conservative Forecasting: Emphasizes the importance of not assuming significant price appreciation in the near term, while remaining open to opportunities arising from market adjustments.
On Market Softness:
"We're moving from this really strong seller's market to a softer market that is more neutral." [04:50]
On Price Drops:
"Price drops are not a measure of whether prices have actually gone down. They're indicating that properties may have been initially overpriced." [07:15]
On Regional Trends:
"Affordable markets are performing well, even amid economic uncertainty." [15:30]
On Mortgage Rates:
"Mortgage rates are staying higher than many predicted, largely due to ongoing economic uncertainty." [21:05]
On Investment Strategy:
"The key to being a good investor is to just change your strategy to change your tactics according to what's going on in the market, what's going on in the economy..." [35:00]
The May 2025 Housing Market Update by Dave Meyer offers a detailed analysis of the current real estate landscape, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and informed decision-making for investors. As the market continues to soften, understanding regional nuances, mortgage dynamics, and rent trends becomes crucial for building and managing a successful real estate portfolio.
For more insights and updates, listeners are encouraged to subscribe to the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast on platforms like YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Disclaimer: The content of this summary is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always consult with a qualified advisor before making investment decisions.