Roadmap with Irina - January 2023

Hi Iren, 

At the beginning of a new year, we usually review the previous one and try to make predictions for the year ahead. Without a doubt, last year was remarkable, with skyrocketing interest rates, falling stocks, leveling housing prices, growing inflation, and an unstable global political situation. I am glad that it is over, and I am curious to see what the new year will reveal.

Let’s take a look at the statistics for the December of the last 3 years. There were two times less closed transactions for single-family homes and 30% less for condos in December 2022 than in December 2021. The number of new listings on the market in December 2022 was 27% less than December 2021 and 3 times less than in December 2020! There were not enough homes to choose from! The median sale prices went down from April to December of 2023, but they are still higher than in December 2020 which means that the appreciation is still positive, it just grows at a slower pace.

Does that mean that the prices will continue to go down? I don’t think so. Homeowners who bought or refinanced their homes in the past couple of years will not rush into selling because they got great interest rates on their mortgages and will stay in their homes for a while, and this will cause lower inventory. Buyers will get used to more stable interest rates and will eventually get back to the market. Low inventory and high demand might push the housing prices up and create a seller's market again. Realtor.com predicts home prices to go up by 5.4%, when Fannie Mae expects them to drop 1.5% nationwide. The Bay Area is always a special place, and I don’t think the prices will go down much here, but let’s see what the new year will bring.

If you are thinking about buying or selling, let’s connect, talk about your options, run some numbers, and see if this is the right time for you. Call me, I am always here for you.

To know more about disaster preparedness, please visit these sites. I hope they will help you to prepare for disaster yourself and be ready to help others. Stay safe!

https://esfi.org/disaster-safety/home-disaster-safety/

https://defydisaster.org/preparedness/

https://www.ready.gov/plan

My last two transactions were very tough: there were a lot of emotions involved, and I had to deal with different sides of people's personalities. I always look out for all possible outcomes to protect my clients from any losses. “Hope for the best, get ready for the worst”, my granny used to say, so I always triple-check everything to make sure that I’m getting the best possible deal for the clients. I think there were so many changes in the real estate market during the last year, so people feel a little lost and have a lot of fear, so sometimes they behave unexpectedly. Anyways, in both transactions, I did everything I could to keep them moving forward, but at some point, I realized that there is nothing else left that I can do to make it work. I asked for advice from my manager,  my lawyers, and other realtors. Everything was done right, but we were not going anywhere. At that point, I said to myself that I have done all I could, and now I let go and switched my mind to other tasks and prepared myself for any outcome. I didn’t give up, I just stepped aside for a moment. You wouldn’t believe it, but within hours the situation changed to my clients’ favor, and we were done.     

What I realized is that sometimes we just need to let it go and rely on the higher power, God, universe, whatever you want to call it, and truly believe that this higher power will resolve the situation in the best possible way. I guess this will not work if you do a stupid thing and hope that someone will fix it for you. This is when you did everything you could but still don’t see a way of moving forward. You do not give up, you just ask for help from that higher power to walk you through the tough times. I think, in most cases, there is a bigger picture that we cannot see at the moment, so we need to rely on something wiser than we are. What I learned from it is that I don’t always need to be a control freak, sometimes I just need to step back and let things happen. I will try to practice it more and see if it brings me more peace of mind. We’ll see.

Let go, relax a little, and enjoy your day!