07/01/2022
Insights from HAR President & CEO Bob Hale
It seems hard to imagine that the 2022 4th of July weekend is already upon us. It is even more difficult to realize that during the past six months we have shared more than 156 Insight stories with our readers. Through these stories, we have sought to provide information about, the important developments, changes, and transitions that have taken place in this amazing real estate market that we share in Houston. Each week has brought new practices to learn, new economics to incorporate into our professional practices, and new ways to serve our clients and customers. This week will be no different.
Many REALTORS® have come to the conclusion that the market highlight of the past two years has been the now infamous “hot market.” U.S. existing-home sales prices have tallied a new record after topping $400,000.
Recently, we have learned that total sales of existing homes, condos, and co-ops dropped 3.4% between April and May to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.4 million, according to new data from the National Association of REALTORS®.
This decline is the latest sign that the once red-hot housing market has cooled as record-high prices push more buyers out of the market. The median home sale price clocked in at $407,000, marking the first time that median prices exceeded $400,000. The median price of an existing home increased 14.8 percent from the previous year, when prices hovered around $355,000, marking 123 consecutive months of price increases.
Homes stayed on the market for 16 days in May and all-cash buyers made up some 25 percent of all transactions in May.
As is frequently the case, the real estate market appears to have also been significantly impacted by factors outside of the transactional mainstream. This week we are bringing information regarding how a number of real estate companies are offering support in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision reversing Roe v. Wade.
A group of HAR member brokers have joined national corporations, including Starbucks, Tesla, JPMorgan Chase, Airbnb, Google, Meta (Facebook), Amazon, Disney, Bank of America, Netflix, Salesforce, Wells Fargo, Ford, and others, offering to provide their employees reimbursement for travel and health care expenses associated with abortion, should their employees need to travel out of their state for the procedure.
Douglas Elliman has told employees it will cover travel-related expenses for abortions. The brokerage has about 8,000 employees and agents spread throughout the country.
Redfin has also implemented a similar policy, announcing in a statement on Monday its intention to pay for employees traveling to receive medical care.
Compass, which has around 4,000 employees, told employees Friday they would pay travel expenses for any employee who needed it.
Also offering employees a travel reimbursement is Zillow, which updated its existing health plan on June 1 to allow for $7,500 in travel-related expenses for health care, which includes reproductive health care.
I look forward to working with all of you to meet and exceed the challenges that we are witnessing
