Weaker Housing Market Ahead?

California's red-hot housing market appears poised for a cool-down. The Mercury News reports:
2018 home sales are expected to be lower for the first time in four years. The C.A.R. “2019 California Housing Market Forecast” projects a modest decline of 3.3 percent in single-family home sales next year, with 396,800 sold units, down from the projected 2018 sales figure of 410,460. The 2018 figure is 3.2 percent lower compared with 424,100 homes sold in 2017.
According to C.A.R. senior vice president and chief economist Leslie Appleton-Young, who delivered the 2019 forecast at the C.A.R. fall business meetings in Long Beach last week, the surge in home prices over the past few years due to the housing supply shortage has finally taken a toll on the market. While it is not yet a buyer’s market, indicators are moving in this direction. As sales continue to decline, prices will drop.
“Buyers are exhausted. They’re done for a while,” said Appleton-Young. “Buyers can’t afford and don’t want to pay those prices, so they’re sitting on the sidelines, waiting.”

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