Bonnie's Takeaways

Homes in Bartow County over the long term have typically increased about 4% a year in their value. Last year in 2023 the Average Home Price rose ONLY 1.3% to an average price $343,823.  I don’t actually believe the Average Home Price is the best indicator of home prices as it only takes a few high prices home sales to change the average a good bit .  Soooo, to support this, in 2022 there were 14 homes that sold over $1,000,000 and  In 2023, only half that, or 7 homes sold.   So I prefer using the median home price which is less volatile.  So to explain a little better, the Median Home Price is where 50% of homes sell below and 50% of homes sell above this price. The Medium Home Price rose 3.4% to $320,535. This puts us very close to our historical home value appreciation.  If you are a Luxury home owner however,  your market is much softer.  If you are curious about your home’s value, don't hesitate to give me a call for a full analysis of your market.

So as everyone knows, the big impact on the housing market last year was higher mortgage rates. The vast majority of mortgages over the past decade have been under 4% while it now hovers in the mid 6’s.  It has been an incredible run of low interest ever since the housing bust in 2008.  And if you were lucky enough to get one of these low interest loans, you are now in the position of not really wanting to give it up. Because of that  there are a lot less people willing to put their home on the market.  In fact only 1761 homes, or 14.5% less homes went up for sale this last year. The number of home sales also dropped 16.4 % to only 1366 homes sold.  As demand fell so did supply, keeping home prices stable.  

Mortgage rates started the year at 6.48% and finished 2023 at 6.61%...  less than 1/8th of a point higher.  Interest Rates during the year had risen to a high of 7.79% in October before beginning the current slide. This has been quite a shock to homebuyers who have seen sub-4% rates for the past decade.  However, if you look historically since 1971, the average mortgage rate since then has been 7.74%. What we are seeing now is a return to those historical norms or averages.  

We also saw a longer market time it takes to sell a home.  The Median Time to Sell a home doubled from 2022 to 18 days and the Average now taking 37 days. Still not bad at all. The number of Expired Listing rose 27.8% to 202 homes and the Months of Inventory rose to 3.2 months, normally being 5-6 months.

So just to summarize all of this, what we saw last year was a move to return to a normal or balanced market. What we have been used to has been historically low interest rates, historical rises in home values, multiple offers and very fast sales. 2023 saw the inevitable return to a more normal market. Experts say rates should settle in around 6%, plus or minus a ½ point. Inventory will take some time to increase as people will be hesitant to give up their low rate mortgages, and home values will stabilize. We still have a ways to go before we get to a balanced market, but normal should become the “new normal”