The recession chatter never ends, and yes, we HAVE experienced a massive recession in the housing sector as it relates to volume. Did we just experience the FASTEST housing recession in history? Yup. From the peak in late 2020 to the trough in January this year, the monthly pace of home sales declined by 42%. By this metric, we just experienced the fastest decline in the housing market on record. (sunderji.substack.com)
After a massive surge in demand and sales activity fueled by accelerated global lifestyle shifts (work from home, second and third homes, area moves, accelerated retirements, some markets that were frozen for years unlocked, delayed plans accelerated, etc) combined with super low interest rates, pent up demand and savings, reduced tax rates, etc, the housing markets did a U-turn as the Fed raised rates more and faster than ever before....combined with low inventory options. Sales volume plummeted..... when compared to the extreme figures of 2021 that had produced extremes... when compared to 2019. All extremes tend to rebalance after a while. The EXTREME extremes of the housing markets have experienced a much more pronounced rebalancing.