Insider’s Phil Rosen dives into the housing market and what declining new home listing means for buyers and sellers.
Good morning, friends. Phil Rosen here. Today we’re talking housing — but before we get to that, the big thing to watch today is President Joe Biden’s meeting with congressional leaders.
The cadre will look to resolve the hotly-contested debt ceiling stalemate.
Experts have cautioned that the so-called “x date” — when the country tips into a catastrophic default — could loom mere weeks away.
It’d be untested waters, but odds are a US default isn’t quite a bullish black swan for markets.
The housing market seems to be taking a page from the labor market’s playbook right now.
Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist took to Twitter last week to describe the sluggish sector:
“Homeowners are quiet quitting the housing market.”
The phrase has become somewhat hackneyed over the last several months — it describes employees doing minimal possible work to skate by in their jobs — but applying it to Americans looking for homes is a new twist.
Fairweather made her comment in response to new home listings being down more than 20% from a year ago in April.
In effect, more and more homeowners are choosing to stay put with their low mortgage rates locked in, rather than trying to finance a new home at rates that are hovering around 20-year highs.
The key here is that would-be homebuyers looking to upgrade their homes have been sidelined.
